Dharamsala, February 3
After a reprimand from Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, the Tibetan government in-exile has banned protests being taken out in support of the 17th Karmapa, Uygen Trinley Dorjee. The CM, while talking to The Tribune yesterday, warned strong action against Tibetans holding protests at Dharamsala.

The speaker of the Tibetan parliament in-exile, Pempa Tsering, gave this information to the Chief Minister, here this morning. He said the cabinet of the Tibetan government in-exile held a meeting and directed everybody against holding processions as these were being perceived as protests and a pressure tactic on the agencies investigating the foreign currency seizure case against Karmapa aides.

A delegation of Tibetan leaders, including Pempa Tsering, deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament in-exile, Dolma Gyari and spokesperson of the Karmapa, Karma Topden, today met the Chief Minister at Circuit House here.

The CM clarified to the visiting delegation that he was not happy at the protests being carried out by the Tibetans. He said till date the police had not harassed the Karmapa or any other person associated with him. However, the investigation agencies had to do their job and no pressure should be exerted on them.

He also categorically stated that all benami land deals, effected by Tibetan trusts, would be cancelled by the government.

The speaker of the Tibetan parliament in-exile informed the Chief Minister that the Karmapa did not have any Chinese connection. The Karmapa was living here for the past 10 years under surveillance of Indian security agencies and was kept by the Tibetans in high regard. The Tibetans were pained at him being projected as a Chinese spy by a section of the media, he said.

He requested the Chief Minister to use his office to help Tibetan organisations got permission under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to receive foreign donations. Earlier, there was not much strictness in the matter. However, for the past few years, the agencies concerned had gone very strict in the matter. Since most of the foreign donations were received by the Tibetans from foreigners, the permission under FEMA was a must so that such incidents were avoided, Pempa Tsering said.

The Chief Minister said since the matter fell in the jurisdiction of the union government, the state government had nothing to do with it. In a lighter vein, the CM said the Tibetan government in-exile had better relations with the Union Government than the state government and so it should take up this matter with the Centre.

The spokesperson of the Karmapa, who is also a former Indian Ambassador to Mangolia, added to the conversation that left everybody giggling. He said there was a lot of hue and cry in the country regarding the black money stashed in foreign banks. The Tibetans should be credited with at least bringing foreign money back to the country.

Topden also requested the Chief Minister to apply law in case of the Karmapa with a kind heart as he was a dharma guru for the Tibetans.

Dolam Gyari also said the labelling of the Karmapa as a Chinese agent was bothering the Tibetans.

To this the CM said the state government was not, for the time being, taking the Karmapa as a Chinese agent. It had been done by the media that is free in this country.

Dharamsala, February 3
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal announced the construction of more houses for government employees at Dharamsala.

He said this while presiding over a district-level function of the Non-Gazetted Officers (NGO) Federation in Dharamsala late last evening.

He was responding to a demand of the employees who have been serving in Kangra district.

Though Dharamsala has been accorded the ceremonial second capital status by the state government and many government offices have been shifted here from Shimla over a period of time, there is not enough official accommodation.

Even when the entire government shifts here for the winter session of the Himachal assembly, the district administration has to book all hotels in and around Dharamsala to accommodate the visiting officials.

The government is now constructing a new secretariat that will house the offices of all ministers. Sources here say that land has even been identified for constructing the MLA hostels.

The CM said the employees were the backbone of the government and the force behind spectacular achievements made by the state during past three years.

He dedicated the new Karamchari Kalyan Bhawan (NGO Bhawan), constructed at a cost of Rs 35 lakh, at Dharamsala to the employees.

Dhumal further said the state government had maintained cordial relations with its employees and provided financial and promotional benefits to them in time.

Nurpur, February 3
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal heard 407 complaints and demands in an open darbar organised under the “Prashasan Janta ke Dwar” programme here today.

As many as 100 grievances were redressed on the spot and remaining were forwarded to the top brass of different government departments present on the occasion.

In the camp the Chief Minister gave a patient hearing to every complainant.

The Chief Minister, while addressing a public rally before holding “Prashasan Janta ke Dwar”, said the programme had been envisaged with an objective to provide the people an opportunity to redress their grievances to the authorities concerned at the forum where all top officials of different departments were present.

He said with this programme the people could save money and time which they were spending by visiting the state or district headquarters.

Dhumal said it was unfortunate that the people rearing domestic animals were abandoning them, which was contrary to our rich cultural heritage. He claimed that his government had ensured 50 per cent reservation to women in the elections to the gram panchayat institutions, but it was pleasure that about 58 per cent women had been successfully elected in these elections.

He said the government had directed the village functionaries to remain available in their offices for general public on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and, similarly, panchayat secretaries and sahayaks were directed to remain in the office on every working day from 10 am to 5 pm.

Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated a science block at local Arya Government College built at a cost of Rs 104.86 lakh and gau sadan at Khazian built at a cost of Rs 1.75 crore.

Shimla, February 3
The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) has severely reprimanded the government for undermining its independence by issuing directions on matters pertaining to fixation of tariff. It outrightly rejected the directions as ultra vires and in violation of Supreme Court verdict.

“The commission has been set up as an independent body to carry out statutory functions. It has to discharge a statutory obligation, how can it do so if it follows any such direction which takes away its basic function from it. Further, it is settled that directions which place fetters on the working of the quasi-judicial authority will be ultra vires and, therefore, void,” the outgoing chairman Yogesh Khanna said in a strongly worded order passed on the petition filed by the Small Hydro Association for harmonising the tariff for projects up to 25 MW.

“The commission is constrained to point out that a few months ago such directions had been received by the commission as a generic input on the administrative side. As a measure of the education of the governance structure, the commission did not invoke its judicial powers at that time in the hope that pointing out of fallacies in the missive of the power department will make it aware of the legal implications of its actions. However, the department has repeated the directions in a matter on the judicial side in flagrant disregard of the rulings of the Supreme Court and the advice given to the states by both Attorney General of India and the Solicitor General of India”, the order points out.

“The commission is of the view that its independence is under attack from segments within the governance structure which still has not been able to reconcile themselves to the ingress of independent regulation in the power sector.

In fact, the directions given by the power department are symptoms of “paranoid imperium” and are based on a biased and misplaced adherence to the theme that only the government knows what is the best for the people and other stakeholders and the courts have no role to play.

The order further pointed out that the Electricity Act 2003 was enacted to distance the governance structure from the tariff determination exercise and to negate it by using Section 108 implied that the fundamental basis of the Act was being demolished without a thought to the consequences emerging from such action. The use of Section 108 as a means to revert the tariff setting process back to the government was not justifiable and any such action militated against the independence of the commission.

Mandi, February 3
Supported by CITU, over 150 rehri-fariwallas and street vendors here today protested against municipal council president Sushila Sonkhla and raised anti-council slogans. They demanded that they should be allowed to sell their goods in the town as they had rights for selling their goods.

They described the MC’s decision to remove them from streets or roadsides within six hours as dictatorial.

Coordinator of the rehri-fariwallas union Surinder Kumar said, “The council is behaving like a dictator as it has not ever thought of allotting an alternative site for them. We will starve to death if we do not sell”.

He rued that the roadside squatters should be given a proper space in the town to sell their goods. The vendors were part of the city life and they had right to sell their fruits, juices, vegetables from street to street.

CITU leader Bhupender Singh said they had met the ADC in the absence of the DC and submitted a memorandum to him.

The council summoned the police as the situation turned tense as the protesters demanded the council president to respond to their demands.

Sonkhla said, “The house held a meeting today and passed a resolution that it will approach the DC, allowing them to run their rehris in the outer town. We will also request him to allot some space for the rehri market.”

Sonkhla said the council had declared Mandi as a rehri-free town wayback in 1998 as all vendors were allotted shops in the Indira market. Only four rehris were allowed in the school bazaar, but today their number was more than 150, she added.

She said the council had stopped taking the token money from the vendors as they were creating congestion on the roads. The council had suffered a loss of over Rs 6 lakh for not collecting the token money from vendors, but the town was clogged with stationary venders”, she added and justified the decision. 

Mandi, February 3
The CPM activists today held protest against the Food and Civil Supplies Corporation’s failure to supply LPG and kerosene in Jogindernagar.

CPM leader Kushal Bhardwaj alleged that over 20,000 card holders in the town had been facing an acute shortage of LPG and kerosene for months together. There is no godown of the corporation, which supplies LPG and kerosene in Jogindernagar, he added.

They have sent several reminders to the corporation but its vice-chairman Ram Swarup Sharma, who also hails from Jogindernagar, has been giving false assurances to the suffering residents.

He said if a card holder books LPG today he would get it after four months.

Bilaspur, February 3
Property worth Rs 10 lakh was destroyed in a devastating fire that suddenly engulfed the house of a government schoolteacher, Vidya Sagar, at Seoo village near Ghumarwin this morning. Ranjit Singh, an employee of the IPH Department, was injured while trying to douse the flames.

A report said the incident took place when the teacher had gone to his school at Talai and his wife was in the cowshed. The cause of fire had not yet been ascertained, it added.

The fire erupted suddenly and went out of control, despite all efforts of a large number of villagers who immediately gathered on the spot. However, with the efforts of the villagers adjoining houses were saved.

Local Ghumarwin MLA Rajesh Dharmani rushed to the spot and supplied goods worth Rs 15,000 to the affected family, while naib tehsildar Munshi Ram provided Rs 5,000, quilts, ration and residence as immediate grant from the district administration.

The naib tehsildar ordered revenue officials to assess the total loss for further financial help. Local BJP leaders Rajender Garga and Vikram Sharma also visited the spot and assured financial help from the government to the affected family.

Block Development Committee member Rakesh Bhardwaj and several other village leaders appreciated the efforts of the IPH staff in helping extinguish the fire and said as there was no road to the village the fire brigade could not reach there.