Shimla, November 26
The one-day state level conference organised by the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan here today virtually set the agenda for the coming panchayat polls by accusing the BJP of undermining the authority of the grassroot democratic institutions and victimising the functionaries affiliated to the Congress.

“Instead of strengthening the panchayati raj institutions (PRIs), the Dhumal government has been diluting their power in a systematic way to achieve narrow political ends. Unlike the Congress regime, even the lower-rung officials like forest guards and patwaris were ignoring the PRIs and the government had also barred them from performing any inauguration or foundation stone-laying ceremonies”, state Congress president Kaul Singh said while addressing delegates.

Worse, the system of micro-planning introduced by the Congress government to effectively involve the PRIs in the process of development had been virtually scrapped and even polling committees had not been constituted in many districts. The BJP government had been busy victimising pradhans and other panchayat functionaries owing allegiance to the Congress. Time had come to settle scores and hold the BJP accountable for its misdemeanours, he said.

The BJP was not only misleading the people to take credit for centrally sponsored schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, but also violating the norms fixed by the Centre.

Despite liberal assistance by the Centre, the Dhumal government had burdened the common man by increasing the bus fare by 45 per cent, electricity tariff by 33 per cent and water charges by 30 per cent over the past three years. It had diluted the subsidised ration scheme by curtailing quota of various commodities.

He asked the party men to expose the corrupt BJP government, which had become synonymous with land mafia as evident from the large chunks of land being given to outsiders in the name of private universities and other projects.

Solan, November 26
Giving relief to the industry, the Excise and Taxation Department will now charge 2 per cent entry tax on all industrial inputs and half a per cent on non-ferrous materials while further bringing it into the ambit of VAT.

This has given the much-needed succour to steel units, manufacturers of LPG cylinders, pharmaceuticals etc.

Excise and Taxation Commissioner Jagdish Sharma said since the tax had been brought under the ambit of VAT, it would help generate revenue to the state.

Nalagarh Industries Association president Prem Sharma said the new arrangement would help them avail tax benefits and hence reduce the burden of double taxation which had been levied earlier. Welcoming the step, he said it would help stabilise the steel industry which was emerging from the recession.

About 35 steel units had earlier represented their case before the Chief Minister after 4 per cent entry tax was levied on scrap and waste material. This had put a monthly burden of several lakhs on every unit thus forcing the industry to oppose the tax. Acceding to their demand, the Excise and Taxation Department then redrafted the entry tax and cut it to 2 per cent and also brought it under the ambit of VAT.

The provision will help generate revenue worth crores to the state government. As per an estimate, goods worth Rs 3,000 crore, which were manufactured in the state, were branch transferred to other states through corporate offices. Since there was no system of levying tax on outward goods, the state failed to earn any revenue on manufactured goods.

The other practice of consignment sale where dealers were assigned to sell goods on an agreed commission also failed to give the state any revenue. But with the introduction of this tax, the state would manage to rope in some revenue in the form of entry tax.

As per an estimate even 1 per cent tax will help generate revenue worth Rs 300 crore thus adding substantially to the state’s revenue.

Shimla, November 26
Businessmen will be able to remit taxes at the click of a mouse with the launch of the new web portal of the Excise and Taxation Department facilitating e-payments, here today.

Initially the facility will be available to the traders having the TIN numbers issued by the department and having their accounts in the State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank. The new service was formally launched by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal by accepting payment of Rs 99,999 from Sanjay Guleria, director, the Symbiotic Drugs and Diabetic Care Private Limited, Parwanoo, and issuing hard copy of the electronically-generated receipt in his office chamber.

He congratulated the department for launching the e-enabled web portal for the convenience of the VAT payers, who could deposit their payments electronically up to 9.00 pm every day and the payment made after that would be accounted for on the next date.

He said the Internet-based facility reduced the cost of citizen-centric services and also saved hassles of the traders, which they had been experiencing in depositing the VAT.

Dhumal said the IT-enabled service was the need of the hour and a must to keep pace with the modern technological advancements, which would save time and money of the businessmen. He said the state government had approved the 3,366 Common Service Centre - “Lok Mitra Kendra” to provide people various services at their doorsteps and 2,667 centres had already come into operation.

He said the new system was simple, manageable, transparent and efficient and a major effective step towards cost-effective tax administration.

Bhim, principal secretary, the Excise and Taxation Department, said, “The endeavour is to make tax remittance convenient for the traders and make the functioning of department and tax collection transparent.” 

Shimla, November 26
Even though the Tourism Department has signed an agreement with three operators for the launch of heli-taxi services by mid-December, the permission from the Army authorities for use of the Annadale ground here and the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) in Manali as base has yet to be sought.

The Tourism and Civil Aviation Department has signed an agreement with three operators, Simm Sam Airways Pvt Ltd, Shiva Helli Services and Mesco Airlines, for launching the services and also allotted them specific routes. Besides this, the issue of making available air fuel at the reasonable prices will also have to be worked out to ensure economic viability of the scheme.

“We will soon be holding a meeting the Army authorities to allow use of Annadale ground as base for the running of heli-taxi service as well as the ground of the SASE in Manali,” said Arun Sharma, Director, Tourism and Civil Aviation. He said once the nod from the Army authorities was received, the services would be launched by.

He also said the issue of making air fuel available at reasonable prices had also to be dealt with. “The prices of air fuel at Manali is almost Rs 35 per litre while in Shimla it will cost over Rs 80, so we will have to talk to the Civil Supplies Corporation to pitch in so that the fuel cost does not go too high,” said Sharma.

It is only the Bhuntar airport in Kullu which has facility for refuelling and storage. As such the facility will have to be created here at Annadale.

The government had also sought 75 per cent viability gap funding from the Planning Commission to ensure that the project takes off but there has been no positive response on it till now. 

Hamirpur, November 26
In an important decision, the state government has equated the serving teachers having Master of Arts (MA) degree in public administration with those teachers having MA degree in political science for promotion as lecturer in school cadre.

After this decision, the teachers with MA in pubic administration will be promoted as lecturer in the department against the posts available in political science and also teach the subject to students.

This decision has been taken after a High Court order in this regard wherein a few serving teachers having postgraduate degree in public administration had approached the High Court for equating their degrees with those having masters degrees in political science for promotion purposes.

The main argument of these teachers was that since the teachers having masters degrees in pubic administration were capable of teaching political science as the political science subject taught in the schools had syllabus which could be easily taught by them as well.

Their other argument was that since there were limited posts available in pubic administration subject and a few chances of promotion as lecturer in the subject, they should be promoted against the vacant posts of lecturer in political science.

After the High Court orders, the Principal Secretary, Education, through its order no EDN-B-KHA (16-6) 28/7/2010 has asked the department to equate the teachers having pubic administration MA with MA political science for promotion as school lecturer.

The department has already promoted three teachers having MA in public administration as lecturer against the posts of lecturer in Political Science.

This decision will benefit hundreds of teachers with MA in the subject since HP University, Shimla, is running the regular public administration department on the campus and 40 students are getting their MA degrees from there every year. 

Shimla, November 26
The Municipal Corporation (MC) today gave its nod for handling the task of issuing ration cards to the people.

The MC at its monthly meeting put its stamp of approval on the decision of the government to hand over the task of issuing ration cards to the local bodies. Prior to this, ration cards were being issued by the District Food and Supplies Controller but now the MC will take o the job.

The House also approved the utilisation of Rs 17 crore received as loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for being spent on restoration of the Ridge and renovation of the Town Hall, housing the MC offices. 

Chamba, November 26
The inauguration of “national integration week” last evening at Chamba by Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Ashwani Choudhary witnessed the amalgamation of varied culture of different states in a big way. Earlier, participants held a grand rally in the main bazaars of the town.

As many as 133 participants hailing from six states are participating in the camp, which is organised here, under the aegis of the Nehru Yuva Kendra. The national-level camp will conclude on November 30.

The ADM said the participants would have interaction with each other and would become well-conversant with the language and culture of other states.

BILASPUR: BJP national general secretary and MLA and former Forest Minister addressed the “Regional National Integration Camp” organised by the Nehru Yuvak Kendra at Kisan Bhawan today.

Nadda said, “We have a rich ancient culture and a set of healthy traditions and heritage in which our national integration and unity is well ingrained and tightly knit despite all well-planned onslaughts of 200 years rule of the Britishers.” 

Shimla, November 26
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has urged the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora to rush enough supply of cooking gas refills as people, particularly in the interior areas, were facing hardship due the ongoing shortage.

He said the state government had repeatedly approached the Indian Oil Corporation authorities to maintain supply line to the agencies located in different parts of the state but there had been no improvement. He said the supply was short by about 50,000 refills against the actual demand of 1,84,200 refills. The shortage from October 1 to November 12 had been 19,685.

He said cooking gas agencies were opened across the state on a priority to help save forests, as people had been mainly dependent on fuel wood for space heating. The step had contributed significantly in preserving the valuable forest wealth and people had switched over to cooking gas gradually. He feared that in case the refills were not made available, they might revert to fuel wood. Moreover, the winter had already set in and requirement of refills had gone up.

Dhumal said a large number of people in the state were also using kerosene for domestic purposes and the short supply of the kerosene quota had further aggravated the situation. The economically vulnerable sections of the society were using the kerosene and short supply was causing great inconvenience to them. 

Mandi, November 26
Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court Kurian Joseph today urged the legal fraternity to come forward to provide leadership to society and making the temple town Mandi and Sundernagar worthy and more beautiful place to live in for its residents.

Addressing the members of the Mandi Bar Association and judicial officers of Mandi, Joseph said the legal fraternity played a leading role in nation building and in making the Constitution of India as one of the most comprehensive and beautiful for its citizens. “Mandi reminds me of a Trichur temple town in Kerala and both have similar ambiance,” he added.

He urged the people of state to come forward to seek justice as the rate of turnover in Himachal was much less than what it was in Kerala. The courts do not punish but ensure rights and justice for people, he stressed. Joseph informed that there were 54,000 cases pending in the High Court when he joined but the pendancy had been reduced to 46,000 cases today. — TNS

Shimla, November 26
The Cabinet decision to restore the autonomy to Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) by withdrawing Section 35-A in the main Act has been welcomed by all sections, including teachers, employees and students.

The state Cabinet, at its meeting held here yesterday, had taken a decision to withdraw Section 35-A. Vice-Chancellor Prof Sunil Gupta said Section 35-A incorporated by the previous regime had only resulted in eroding the autonomy of the institute.

“The move will pave the way for smooth administrative functioning as this amendment had been a major bottleneck in the general functioning of the HPU,” he remarked. He thanked the Chief Minister for its withdrawal and added that it would help in improving academic and administrative atmosphere. The HP U Teachers’ Welfare Association too welcomed the decision. The executive meeting of the association was held where the members said the decision would help in filing of vacant posts of teacher. — TNS

Kangra, November 26
In yet another development in the false HIV report case of Anu Bala, cases has been registered against the doctors on duty and the private lab, which conducted the HIV test on Anu, at the Kangra police station today.

“We have registered cases under Section 304(a), 336, 506 and 504. Investigations are on and whosoever will be found guilty will be booked,” said DSP Kangra Dinesh Sharma.

Anu Bala allegedly lost her baby when the private lab reported Anu HIV positive. Anu Bala was nine-months pregnant when Satish Kumar, her husband, rushed her to the Tanda Medical College. The doctors asked the couple to undergo some medical tests, including HIV.

In the report, Anu was reported HIV positive while her satish was reported negative. The doctors decided to deliver the baby through caesarian but the newly born died after few hours.

Nurpur, November 26
The Kangra district Youth Congress (YC) today organised district-level panchayat seminar at Rehan near here, which was presided over by national YC secretary Vishav Ranjan Mohanti. Addressing the YC workers, Mohanti said the YC had organised this seminar as pilot project in Kangra to educate youth and disseminate policies of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi. “Such seminars are also being organised in other districts of the state to make the YC workers aware about ideology of Rahul Gandhi,” he asserted.

Mohanti said the YC constituted organisational committees at polling booth level and only honest and dedicated activists would get place in the party. He maintained that the YC organisation was being shifted from closed doors to grass root level. He also informed that the YC would encourage youth in the forthcoming elections of panchayati raj institutions and local bodies. The seminar was also addressed by state YC president Manmohan Katoch and congress MLA Neeraj Bharti. Hundreds of YC workers from different gram panchayats participated in the seminar. — OC