Shimla, January 7
The audio CD case against Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh took a new turn today when the main witness, Prem Chand Jain, an 82-year-old former vice-president of Ambuja company, approaching the high court with a plea to delete his name from the list of witnesses on the ground that the statement recorded by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau was forged.

A division bench comprising Justice RB Misra and Justice Surinder Singh issued notices to principal secretary, Home, and inspector Daya Sagar, and listed the matter for March 3.

The petitioner, who lives in New Delhi, contended that he had taken over the charge of the Daralaghat unit of the company in 1995 and that he had not visited the state prior to 1994.

However, the allegations levelled in the statement pertained to 1989 when even the site for setting up of the cement plant had not been finalised by the company. He came to know about the statement from a newspaper report.

Further, his address in the statement had been mentioned as Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, whereas he has been living in Basant Kunj in New Delhi since 1998. In fact, he had no connection with Muzaffarnagar. He said inspector Daya Sagar met him at his residence in New Delhi on March 25, 2010, and pressurised him to give a statement against the accused.

He did succumb to pressure and only got recorded the details of his tenure with the company in the statement.

He also pointed out that the statement showed that he had arranged a meeting of Suresh Neotia, chairman of the Ambuja Company, with Virbhadra Singh. However, the statement of Neotia, who allegedly accompanied him to meet Virbhadra Singh when money was alleged to have been paid, had not been recorded.

He alleged that by fabricating his statement the Vigilance department had tried to strengthen the case of corruption against the accused and in the process shown him as “fixer, conduit and a co-accused”.

He said he was forced to move the high court as the trial court had no power to delete his name from the list of witnesses at this stage or to treat the false statement as non-operative and non-existent. He also pleaded for a probe into the matter by an independent agency or judicial authority to bring the erring officials to the book.

Shimla, January 7
The ruling BJP today said the mandate given by the people to the ruling party in the elections was a result of the pro-people policies of the BJP regime which ensured free and fair poll to the pancahayti raj institutions and urban local bodies.

Addressing a press conference here today, BJP leaders Ram Swaroop, Ganesh Dutt and HN Kashyap claimed that the ruling party had won 75 per cent of the seats in panchayats.

They assured that as per the promise made by the BJP in its election manifesto, devolution of power to the panchayats as per the provisions would be ensured by the ruling party.

“In sharp contrast to the Congress which has resorted to booth-capturing and adopting unfair means, the BJP not only held urban local bodies poll on the basis of party symbol but also ensured free and fair poll,” said Kashyap.

He said the massive turnout in the poll had indicated that people had reposed faith in the state government. Ganesh Dutt said the Congress had alleged misuse of official machinery in the poll by the BVJP but had failed to substantiate the allegations. “Congress is in the habit of leveling baseless allegations and it has failed to play the role of a responsible opposition,” he said.

They added that the BJP had provided 50 per cent reservations to women in the panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies poll to involve them in the development process.

He added that almost 56 per cent of the posts had been captured by the women candidates. 

Mandi, January 7
The block development officer, Paddar, Gulab Singh Bains, and his brother, Yudh Chand Bains, former District Youth Congress president, registered complaints today against District Congress Committee president Puran Chand Thakur at Paddar and Balh police stations, accusing him of intimidating them on their phones. The police has not registered an FIR so far.

Yudh Chand Bains, addressing the local media at Balh, blamed Puran Chand for using foul language on his mobile phone and also threatening him of expulsion from the party, besides settling scores with his brother, who is posted as the BDO at Paddar in the Drang segment. “He first abused my brother on his phone and then called me and abused me and threatened me with dire consequences,” Yudh Chand alleged.

Bains said he had faxed a written complaint against Puran Chand to the state president Kaul Singh Thakur, national Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Union Steel Minister and Mandi MP Virbhadra Singh and also demanded action against him.

Gulab Bains made a similar allegation against Puran Chand at the police station, Paddar. “Thakur misbehaved with me, abused me and threatened me with dire consequences on phone,” he stated in the police complaint.

Thakur said here that he had only talked to the BDO and his brother on phone. “I only told the BDO that I am a public representative and will have to do public work which he had refused, and we exchanged some heated arguments on the phone,” he claimed. Thakur admitted that he had called his younger brother and exchanged some heated arguments with him. “But I never threatened or abused him,” he said.

Dharamsala, January 7
A thick fog has engulfed the lower areas of Kangra district like Jassur, Damtal and Indora. A steep fall in temperature has been recorded in the areas with no sun shining for the last three days. With bone-chilling cold weather, farmers in these areas have started worrying about their crops and the damage caused to these by dense fog in the area. It has been seen that prolonged fog and mist causes damage to the crops in the plains.

Farmers in the lower areas are the main growers of mangoes, litchi, kinnow and a host of other fruit, and they have been worried because if the fog remains here for a few more days, it may destroy the crops.

A farmer from Nurpur subdivision having fruit orchards said, “These days are tough for our trees and crops. We are worried about the trees as fog and hard winter may prove harmful.”

Answering the queries related to the weather and crops, Naresh Kumar ,Deputy Director Horticulture, said, “Dense foggy weather is definitely harmful for small plants like tomatoes etc, and it could also harm bigger trees and fruit crops if similar foggy conditions prevail for more days. But for now there has been no such report of crop being damaged by dense foggy weather.” Kumar further suggested that farmers could save small plants by covering these with net cloth, and smoke could also be helpful for protecting plants and trees from harsh weather.

Meanwhile, Director of the Meteorological Depeartment Dr Manmohan Singh said, “Similar foggy conditions will prevail for the next three-four days. As North India experienced rains and snowfall due to western disturbance in the past, fog begins to engulf plains because of high humidity and low temperature once the disturbance passes over them.” 

Shimla, January 7
The government has formulated a new transfer policy for teachers to ensure the availability of teaching staff in the rural and tribal areas throughout the academic session and facilitate appropriate deployment of teachers in educational institutions.

The normal tenure at a place for all categories of teachers will be three academic years, subject to good performance and administrative requirements. However, the normal stay in case of first appointment in the tribal, difficult, hard and rural areas will be five years.

Also, the first posting will be preferably in the tribal and hard areas and it will be ensured that those who have already served in tribal or difficult areas are not sent to these areas again. A continuous process of change will be followed whereby all employees are made to serve in the tribal and difficult areas and those who have managed to remain posted in the urban areas are posted to remote, tribal and difficult areas in the transfer season.

A continuous service within the radius of 25 km in the urban areas and 15 km in the rural areas will be clubbed for counting the stay of teachers for the purpose of transfer. General transfers will normally be ordered in April and there will be a ban on transfers after April 30.

Thereafter, transfers can be ordered with the prior approval of the Chief Minister under circumstances such as promotion, retirement, death, deputation, resignation, suspension, proceeding on long leave of a teacher, creation, abolition of shifting of post on rationalisation, on the basis of complaint after verifying facts, due to poor academic performance, misconduct, from institutions of lower enrolment to institutions of higher student enrolments.

The controlling officer will ensure that in the event of transfer, a teacher will join duty only after the person occupying the post is relieved and only thereafter the joining the incumbent is accepted.

In the event of transfer of controlling officer, he or she will be deemed as relieved on the submission of joining report by the other incumbent. If the controlling officer does not comply with this procedure, the salary of incumbent will be drawn from the salary of the controlling officer.

In case of widows having minor children, the department will make effort to accommodate them at a convenient place as far as possible, subject to availability of vacancy. The wives of officers, officials of serving in Armed Forces and Central paramilitary forces will be posted at convenient places subject to availability of vacancy.

Teachers with 70 per cent or more disability will be given roadside stations subject to availability of vacancy. In case of teachers likely to retire within two years, efforts will be made to post them near their native place subject to availability of vacancy. This provision will not be applicable to Class-I, II and teaching staff working on administrative posts.

Dharamsala, January 7
For the first time, 13 students were arrested and remanded in police custody for three days in the examination scam today. The students had applied for anticipatory bail which was rejected by a fast track court at Dharamsala. The arrested students include 11 boys and two girls.

Another accused in the case, postman Harish, was also arrested and remanded in the police custody.

ASP Kangra Umapati Jamwal said the arrested students were being kept in the Dharamsala police lock-up. They would be produced in the court on Monday by the police. The students were among the beneficiaries in the examination scam. Those arrested today had procured Class X and XII certificates through the main accused in the scam Ashwani Dogra and his accomplices.

The police has information regarding 208 students who procured certificates through the main accused in the examination scam. The operatives in the exam scam allegedly used to take money from students with assurance that they would pass without appearing in examinations.

The student just had to fill the examination forms as private students to appear in board examinations. They did not sit in examination and they were marked as absent. The main accused used to procure answersheets of the board. On these answersheets, the accused used to solve the papers for students. The bundles of these answersheets were sent to evaluation centres formed by the board. The accused allegedly used to get information regarding codes of evaluation centres from their accomplices in the education board.

Sources here told The Tribune that the police would take hand-writing samples of the arrested students to compare it with that on their answersheets collected from the education board. This would help them establish the crime.

The 208 students have also been booked under sections 420, 468 and 471 of the IPC.

Those arrested today include Amit Chaudhary, a 10+1 student from Ichi, Karnail Singh 10+2 student from Dugiari, Vivek Sain 10+2 student from Jamanabad, Munish, Pankaj, Suman, Shama Kumari, Kamlesh Kumari, all 10+2 students from Kangra, Chander Mohan 10+1 student from Kangra and Bhupinder, Kuldeep, Rishu and Amardeep Class X students from Kangra.

Kullu, January 7
Residents of Gandhi Nagar and Shashtri Nagar of Kullu town did not get any respite even after the numerous complaints filed with the HPSEB authorities after facing long “unannounced” shutdowns almost everyday.

The areas remained without power for more than four hours today and the complaint office at the municipal barrier, Shashtri Nagar, remained unattended. The HPSEB authorities, when contacted, said they would restore the supplies after the “work being done in an emergency to provide some meters today was completed”. The Assistant Executive Engineer further saidthe shutdown was sought for today, though not announced.

The consumers complained that the power supply in these areas was always faulty. The complaint office telephone number at Gandhi Nagar was never attended. The linemen working at the complaint office said the area allocated to them was very big and shortage of staff was the constraint. They could not attend all the complaints as they remained busy rectifying the faults from Badah to Dhalpur and none was available at the complaint office.

One of the consumers said the HPSEB usually announced shutdowns from 10 am to 6pm almost every second week in this area, and three such full-day shutdowns had been announced during the past 30 days, but to no avail as the consumers faced unannounced cuts almost everyday.

The loss of revenue to the electricity board might not have been considered by the authorities as it looked that there was no accountability of the staff and the officers.

Chamba, January 7
A newly-elected member of the Tissa block development committee, Yog Raj, alleged that on his winning the ongoing rural elections, when he, along with his supporters and kin, reached his home village Sanwal, at least eight persons entered his house breaking open the door. They also beat his relatives and threw stones on his house.

Giving this information here today, the Superintendent of Police, Chamba, Madhu Sudan Sharma, said following the statement of Yog Raj, a case had been registered at the Tissa police station under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Further investigations in the case were underway, the SP added