Shimla, January 18
Unlike past, it will not be easy for independent power producers (IPPs) to surrender projects after allotment as the government has finally incorporated a provision for forfeiting the earnest money in such an eventuality.

The provision will be enforced for the 18 hydroelectric projects with the aggregate generation capacity of 1385.5 MW for which global bids have been invited. The IPPs will have to pay earnest money at the rate of Rs 1 lakh per megawatt to be remitted in the shape of bank guarantee.

As such in case of a 100 MW project, the successful bidder will lose Rs 1 crore if the project is surrendered. However, still no provision has been made for debarring the companies, which surrender projects, from participating in future bids.

In the past, the bidder mostly sought extension for depositing the upfront money and in many cases they eventually surrendered the project. The government did not take any punitive action and the IPPs had been allowed to participate in bids invited subsequently for the projects. In the process, the projects were delayed by years even if fresh tenders were not invited as it took time in cancelling the allotment and giving an offer to the next highest bidder. In some cases, it took almost two years as the project was eventually allotted to the fourth highest bidder.

For instance, Moser Baer, which surrendered three of the five projects for which tenders were invited in 2008, is again participating in the latest global bids and has purchased the tender documents for two projects. The response had been more than expected as evident form the fact that 155 tender forms have been sold and all major power companies, including like Reliance Power, Essar Energy, Adani Power, L&T and GVK Energy are in the race. More so as eight major projects with aggregate capacity of 1049 MW are in the Chenab basin in landlocked tribal district of Lahaul and Spiti.

The maximum number of companies has evinced interest in the 236 MW Dugar and 12 MW Dhanchho projects for which 16 tender forms each have been sold. It followed by 13 MW Suil, 300 MW Purthi and 130 MW Rasil for which 15, 13 and 10 tenders have been sold.

Only one company has shown interest in the 60 MW Patam project to be constructed upstream the Miyar project in the interior of Lahaul-Spiti.

Other major projects on offer include 104 MW Tandi, 94 MW Teling, 81 MW Tinget and 44 MW Shangling (all in Lahaul and Spiti) and 130 MW Sumte Kothang and 104 MW Lara Sumta (both in Kinnaur). Bids have also been invited for three self-identified projects, 12 MW Jorbie (Kullu), 10 MW Nesang (Kinnaur) and 30 MW Malana III (Kullu) and five small projects, 13 MW Suil, 9 MW Tanger, 12 MW Dhanchho and 9 MW Cho Tundah (all in Chamba), 7.5 MW Kilhi-Bahl (Kangra).

Dharamsala, January 18
The national vice-president of the BJP and Rajya Sabha member Shanta Kumar has urged the UPA government to release the names of Swiss bank holders from India before the public.

In a press note issued here today, Shanta Kumar said the Wikileaks founder Julian Assenga had already stated that he was going to release names of 2000 tax evaders from across the globe, who deposited their money in secret accounts of Swiss banks. The list also contains the names of many Indians. It is high time that the government should release the names of account holders before public.

If the Wikileaks would make the names public, the government could be accused of sheltering the corrupt in the country. It would be an international embarrassment for India that had already slipped to lower ranks among the most corrupt countries, Shanta said.

He said due to delay on the part of the Indian government, the Swiss bank account holders of India were transferring their money to other places. It seemed that the government was giving them time to shift their money to other safer heavens. Earlier also, due to delay on the part of the Indian government, Bofors case accused Quatrocchi managed to shift his money from banks in London to other places, Shanta alleged.

He further said that recently the Indian government in an affidavit submitted in the Supreme Court had admitted that Linkestian bank of Germany had provided it a list of Indian secret accounts holders. The government had, however, stated in the court it had been provided the names on the condition that they won’t be made public.

He said Indian account holders had parked about Rs 70 lakh crore in Swiss banks. The Swiss government had recently declared themoney deposited in such accounts as ‘Stolen Property’.

Solan, January 18
The ruling BJP today managed to bag the posts of chairman and vice-chairman in the Solan zila parishad in straight contests held here today.

The elections were convened under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner AS Rathode, who later administered the oath of office to the duo.

BJP’s Sheila Kumari defeated Congress candidate Nirmala Devi by bagging 10 of the 17 votes. The post of vice-chairman was bagged by BJP’s Hardeep Thakur who defeated Congress candidate Husan Chand by securing 10 of the 17 votes. Husan Chand managed to poll six votes in his favour while one vote was declared invalid.

This victory had boosted the BJP’s morale whose performance in the rural areas seem to have improved while in the urban areas it had failed to prove its mettle by losing four urban civic bodies out of the total five. The Congress’ loss in Solan and Kandaghat blocks, where it lost all four zila parishad seats, proved to be a blessing in disguise for the BJP to muster the desired strength. The Congress failed to win any of the three seats it had held earlier.

In the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) area, comprising twin constituencies of Doon and Nalagarh, the BJP managed to bag the post of vice-chairman after remaining ignored with no significant post being granted to the party leaders from there.

Nalagarh MLA HN Saini and local MLA and Health and Ayurveda Minister Dr Rajiv Bindal played a key role in arriving upon a candidate for the two posts. Saini was persistent that one of the two posts be granted to the BBN and said vice-president Hardeep Thakur was a promising youth who was committed to work for the people.

Meanwhile, in Arki BDC Shakuntala Kumari was chosen as the president and not Kamlesh Kumari as was inadvertently mentioned. With almost 57 per cent women emerging winners in the poll to the panchayati raj institutions in the state, the representation of men had been reduced to a minority of 43 per cent. In some cases women from the SC community had also made it to the top posts even without reservation and the BDC Arki was a case in point. The women dominated the show with three of the five presidents in the urban civic bodies in the district being women and three of the four BDC chairmen too being women apart from the zila parishad chairman.

Mandi, January 18
Barring two members of the CPI and the CPM, none of the members backed by the ruling BJP and the Congress attended the meeting chaired by the Deputy Commissioner here today to elect the new zila parishad chairperson, the post reserved for a member from the Schedule Caste category for this term in the district.

Empty chairs as members abstain from attending the elections to the zila parishad in Mandi on Tuesday. Photo: Kuldeep Chauhan

The BJP in fact has an effective strength of 20 members and the Congress has 13 members, while the CPI and the CPM have one member each. One post is bagged by an Independent, who is being wooed by both parties.

The BJP claimed that they had support of over 22 ward members. The Congress also claimed that they had a majority in the house as far as selection of the zila parishad chairperson was concerned.

But the Mandi BJP remains a “divided house” as Dharampur MLA and Transport Minster Mohinder Singh is also lobbying for his daughter Vandana Guleria for the post of the vice-chairman of the zila parishad in case Rural Development Minister Jairam Thakur and PWD Minister Gulab Singh Thakur call the shots in appointing the zila parishad chairperson.

As part of the BJP strategy to checkmate Congress president Kaul Singh Thakur in Drang and Congress MLA Anil Sharma in Mandi Sadar, the two main contenders - Kheeramani from Nagwani ward in Drang and Kishan Chand from Mandi Sadar have emerged as the BJP’s choice for the zila parishad chairperson.

On the other hand, the Congress is on the defensive as it has lost the zila parishad number game this time that has pushed Kaul Singh on a back foot in his home district. Moreover, the ruling party generally has an upper-hand in appointing the zila parishad and BDCs chairpersons.

Meanwhile, the BJP-backed candidates captured the post of the chairperson of the block development committees (BDC) of Seraj, Gohar and Dharampur.

In six BDCs elections have been postponed for January 21 due to lack of quorum.

Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Jairam Thakur, who has been camping in the town to monitor the elections, said they would ensure that all candidates arrive at a consensus. But the new chairman will be from the BJP, he asserted.

Mandi DC Amandeep Garg said the meeting was postponed for January 27 as only two members turned up for today’s meeting. The next meeting needs simple majority for members to elect the new chairperson, he added.

Shimla, January 18
Meetings with MLAs from various districts regarding priority proposals for formulation of the Annual Plan 2011-12 will be held here on January 27 and 28.

Disclosing this here today, SK Shad, adviser, Planning, said Chief Minister PK Dhumal would preside over the meetings.

He said the meeting with the MLAs of Shimla, Solan and Sirmaur districts would be held on January 27 from 10.30 am to 1.30 pm and with the MLAs from Mandi, Chamba and Bilaspur districts from 2 pm to 5.00 pm on the same day.

He further said the Annual Plan priority with MLAs of Kangra and Kullu districts would be discussed on January 28 from 10.30 am to 1.30 pm while with the MLAs from Una, Hamirpur, Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts from 2 pm onwards on the same day.

Shimla, January 18
With the Congress failing to evolve consensus on the name of the person to be fielded for the post of zila parishad chairperson, election could not be held today for want of quorum.

The next date for the election has been fixed for January 27. Out of a total of 24 zila praishad (ZP) members, only three, Meena Devi, Prem Thakur and Padma Kumari, turned up for the election, which had been fixed for today by the Deputy Commissioner.

With the Congress having the upper hand in the Shimla ZP with 11 of its members having won, the ruling BJP has adopted a policy of wait and watch. With a number of candidates in the Congress, including Anirudh Singh, Bhupinder Dogra, Virender Ghezta and Chandreshwara Prasad, are vying for the top post, the party has failed to decide on one name despite senior leaders trying to get everyone to support one member.

On the other hand, the BJP, which has about seven ZP wards in its kitty, is waiting to gain from the disenchantment after the rival political party Congress decided on one name. “We do not have the adequate numbers but we would want to capitalise on the disgruntled members from the Congress who could come our way,” admitted a BJP leader. There are two CPM ZP members, besides independents.

On the other hand in the BJP, there are two prominent names in the race for the post of ZP chief. This includes Indu Verma, wife of sitting MLA from Theog Rakesh Verma, and Neelam Sarek, general secretary of the State Mahila Morcha. With the BJP having the support of about eight ZP members, they are heavily banking on the support of independents and the disillusioned Congress members who could help it win the election.

Dharamsala, January 18
The BJP took all three block development committees the elections for which were conducted today.

The BJP managed to win both posts of president and vice-president in the Dharamsala BDC. BJP candidates took 12 out of 19 votes in election of president. Sources said some of the Congress BDC members cross-voted for the BJP.

The BJP members took out a victory procession in the town after the elections under the leadership of local minister Kishan Kapoor. The cross-voting of Congress candidates in Dharamsala was major embarrassment for the local leadership of the party that failed to keep its flock together.

Later, while talking to The Tribune, Kishan Kapoor said the BJP had won the elections of the Dharamsala BDC despite best efforts of the Congress leadership.

Sudamini Kapoor has been elected president and Mamta was vice-president in the Dharamsala BDC.

The BJP also managed to get its workers elected to the posts of president and vice-president in Bhawarna and Riat BDCs.

With this, in 10 BDCs in the district for which election process has been completed, the BJP has managed to get 8. The Congress has dominated in just two BDCs, including Kangra and Nagrota Bagwan.

The elections could not be conducted in five blocks of Kangra district, including Baijnath, Nurpur, Indora, Fatehpur and Nagrota Surian. The sources here said the elections in the blocks could not be completed due to lack of adequate strength in the House.

Dharamsala, January 18
Another theory was today put forward to solve the mystery behind origins of the Masrur temples.

In a seminar organised by the department of tourism that was presided over by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal here, NK Singh, former chairman of the Airports Authority of India, claimed that the temples were most likely built by a Hindu emperor.

The Hindu emperors from Afghanistan after attacks from foreign rulers kept their treasure in Kangra fort. Since they accumulated their treasures in the areas, most likely they constructed the temple, located just 25 km from Kangra, NK Singh claimed.

NK Singh claimed that the temple was dedicated to coronation of lord Shiva in which all Hindu gods are participating.

He claimed that most likely a Hindu ruler Jayapal got the temples constructed hiring the services of craftsmen from central Asia.

NK Singh has also written a book “Coronation of Shiva Rediscovering Masrur temples”. He offered the book to the Himachal government for promoting the temples from tourist point of view.

BS Malhan, convener of the Himachal Pradesh chapter of INTACH, said it seemed that the temples were half-built.

The Masrur temples are one of the four monolithic rock-cut temples in the country. Two of these, including Kailash of Ellora and Mamlapuram in Deccan, are famous across the world. The third is Dhamnar located in Rajasthan and fourth is Masrur temples located in Kangra district of Himachal.

While the other three temples are in a pit or on the ground, Masrur is unique due to the fact that is located on hill top at a height of about 2500 feet from the sea level.

NK Singh, in his book, has opined that the temples are built likely during 6th to 8th century AD. He has based his opinion on the fact that before this period, there was no evidence of rock-cut temples in the country. Most of the rock-cut temples in the country were build during this period. After 8th century, there was chaos in the region and the rulers did not have resources or time to take up such a huge project.

He has studied various kings who ruled the area during 6th to 8th century AD, including Harshvardhan who ruled Jalandher state during 6th century, Yashoverdhan, Lalitaditya ruler of Kashmir, Jayapal and Prithvi Chand. By deliberating on the fact that the king who built the temple was a Lord Shiva devotee and had huge resources, NK Singh has concluded that most likely it was Jayapal who got the Masrur temples built.

He, however, said the issue was still open for research by the historians and archeologists.

Dharamsala, January 18
The state government will spend Rs 71 crore for the development of tourism infrastructure in Kangra district. The amount has been allocated from the $90 million loan sanctioned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for development of tourism infrastructure in the state.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said this while addressing a seminar on the Masrur temple here today. He said the state government would conduct tours of schoolchildren to make them aware regarding the rich heritage of the Masrur temple. A festival dedicated to the Masrur temples would also be organised in the near future.

The state had approached leading public schools throughout the country to conduct tours of their students in Himachal, he said.

The Chief Minister said the state had Pong Dam that was capable of attracting water sport lovers. He appealed to the local entrepreneurs to set up eco-friendly hospitality units in the Masrur area wherein the state government would be extending every possible help.

Dhumal said the state had come out with valuable coffee table books “Har Ghar Kuchh Kehta Hai” and “Har Gaon Ki Kahani” to provide a peep into the rich cultural heritage of the state.

The state government would also be constructing ropeways in different places which included Palchan with Rohtang, Dharamkot with Triund, Kullu with Bijli Mahadev, Shah Talai to Deot Siddh, he said.

The CM further said Rs 16 crore were being spent on the creation of quality infrastructure to cater to the needs of visitors to the state. Efforts were being made to connect Adi Chamunda temple with ropeway besides connecting both the shrines with path.

He said that tourism promotion in the Kangra circuit was on the priority agenda of the government and concerted efforts were being made to achieve the objective.

Manisha Nanda, principal secretary, Tourism, said the Masroor temple was a rarest of the rare monuments which was a deserving case for a World Heritage Site of UNESCO.

Arun Sharma, director of Tourism and Civil Aviation, welcomed the Chief Minister and other dignitaries to the one-day conference on the ancient Masrur temple in the district and hoped that the deliberations by renowned historians would give a boost to heritage and religious tourism in the state. 

Shimla, January 18
Even as vehicular movement on all National Highways has been resumed following heavy snowfall three days back, traffic on many roads in the town as well as those connecting upper parts of Shimla district has still not been resumed.

With the temperatures still being very low, there are reports of fresh rain in the lower parts of the state and snow in the higher reaches today. People have been put to a lot of inconvenience as traffic movement has not been resumed on some roads, including the one from Victory Tunnel to Sanjauli via Lakkar Bazaar and in the Jakhu area.

An official spokesman said here today that all National Highways in the state had been opened for vehicular traffic, which were blocked due to heavy snowfall on Saturday and Sunday by undertaking work on a war footing. The National Highways beyond Wangtoo has been opened up to Pooh by the Border Roads Organisation, he added.

He said the Theog-Kotkhai-Hatkoti-Rohru and the Shimla-Chopla road had been opened while the road to Dodra Kwar would be opened up to Larot within the next three days as there was about 6 feet of snow at Chansal, where it was snowing off and on.

He added that the roads from Chamba to Bharmour, Salooni, Holi, Dalhousie and Tissa had been opened.

He said the Public Works department has deployed about 75 mechanical excavators, JCBs and dozers for clearance of snow so as to resume traffic on the remaining roads at the earliest.

Chandigarh, January 18
The Jaypee Group, involved in construction of various hydropower projects in Himachal Pradesh, has finally paid Rs 5.58 crore to the Central Excise and Service Tax Department (North West Region) on account of service tax, which it had been allegedly evading for the last three years.

According to North West Region’s Chief Commissioner of Central Excise and Service Tax Department PK Sirohi, investigation conducted into the company’s affairs had revealed that despite being aware of the service taxability, the group was not paying it.

He said investigations were still in the progress and the service tax liabilities of other sub-contractors, who were working on the group’s project, may also run into several crores.

He said the contractors involved in the construction of these hydel projects were not discharging their service tax liability, despite the fact that no provision exists under the service tax law granting full exemption to the construction of hydroelectric power generation projects.

He further informed that the project site of Jaypee Group at Karcham Wangtoo, Kinnaur, was visited by the headquarter’s preventive team on November 11, 2010. Thereafter, the company was asked to furnish certain documents/information for further examination but they failed to do so.

He said, however, the group had now deposited Rs 5.58 crore (Rs 5.23 crore as service tax and Rs 0.35 crore as interest) towards their service tax liability of the past three years. He revealed that the Jaypee Group had entered into an understanding with the Himachal Government for setting up hydropower generation project at the company’s cost and were entitled to sell the electricity generated from there for 40 years.

Hamirpur, January 18
The Himachal Pradesh Pensioners’ Kalyan Sangh (HPPKS) has opposed the proposal to form trusts to pay pension to retired employees of Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Ltd (HPSEBL) and Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) and demanded putting an immediate end to this move.

Taking note of talks of formation of trusts in the HPSEBL and the HRTC to pay pension to retired employees, the sangh has termed this as an effort to “mislead and terrorise” them.

BD Sharma, state president, HPPKS, said: “Though the state government after stiff opposition from the pensioners had reportedly abandoned this proposal, still the authorities of the HPSEBL and the HRTC are working towards the formation of a pension trust.”

Supporting employees of the HPSEBL and the HRTC, the HPPKS said it was the social obligation of the state government to provide pension to the government employees and the same could not be entrusted to trusts.

The sangh has alleged that “such a move is a well-planned conspiracy of a section of the bureaucracy to defame the government by creating a sense of financial insecurity among employees and pensioners and if this scheme is so lucrative then officers should first implement this in their own case.”

Solan, January 18
Dr KR Dhiman, Vice-Chancellor, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, today inaugurated a one-day training camp for mass awareness on “Rainwater harvesting techniques to augment ground water.”

About 200 farmers from different parts of the state participated in the camp which was organised by the Department of Soil Science and Water Management in collaboration with Central Ground Water Board, Dharamsala, to create awareness about rainwater harvesting.

Speaking on the occasion, Dhiman said average rainfall in the state was about 1,100 mm throughout the year and if only 5 per cent could be utilised the crop production could be doubled. Most of the soil water was lost and it also eroded the fertile soil along with it. Its proper harvesting could help recharge springs making them perennial. The drip irrigation technology could help save up to 90 per cent water as compared to the traditional methods. He urged the farmers to save each and every drop of water for the future.