Solan, February 28
With the Union Budget announcing a 1 per cent hike in the excise duty, industries in Himachal availing the benefits of the 2003 central industrial package have heaved some sigh of relief though the Budget has failed to extend any succour to the ailing industry where the package had expired in March last year.

Its worth mentioning that states have to pay the 5 pc excise duty while the state is exempt from that tax.

The 1 per cent hike in excise duty was welcomed by the industry. Kishore Pathak, factory manager of Cipla, said this was a welcome step and it was for the first time that this duty had been hiked as in all earlier Budgets, it had been reduced from 16 to 4 per cent.

With the government announcing no cut in the Customs duty on imported scrap or sponge iron, which constitutes a major component of the iron and steel industry, the industry was disheartened, opined Prem Sharma, president, Nalagarh Industries Association. He added that the industry was looking forward for some concessions but its hopes had been dashed.

The increase in the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) rate from 18 per cent to 18.5 per cent would hit cash flows in incentive states like Himachal. Further with the increase of excise duty on packaging material, the input cost of units buying packaging material from other states would also go up by 1 per cent, opined JS Kang, factory manager, Elin Appliances, Baddi.

Reduction in the Customs duty on micro irrigation equipment from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent was considered a negative step for the top global player Jain Irrigation which was setting up a unit in Sirmaur district.

The revamping of the excise duty structure for the cement sector would hike prices, opined Manoj Karnawat, vice-president, Ambuja Cements Limited, Darlaghat. This would impact the realty sector and make housing costly thus defeating the government’s objective of making housing affordable and boosting infrastructure growth.

Shimla, February 28
Terming the Union Budget as anti-poor and anti-growth, Chief Minister PK Dhumal today said the UPA regime had once again discriminated against Himachal Pradesh as no major financial assistance had been given to any educational or other institution in the hill state.

In his reaction to the Budget, he said there was no relief to the poor from the sky-rocketing prices of essential commodities. “The Budget is a complete disappointment as it has failed to provide relief to the poor,” Dhumal said.

He said Himachal as usual had got a raw deal as there was no mention about extension of the industrial package despite repeated pleas made by the state. “With the tenure of the industrial package getting over, the pace of industrial growth is bound to be adversely affected,” he said.

He added that in sharp contrast to this, the Centre had provided a special package of Rs 8,000 crore for Jammu and Kashmir.

Dhumal said the Centre had also discriminated against women by not giving them any relief in income tax and the relief to other tax payers was also very meager, especially in view of increasing inflation.

Dhumal termed the relief given to the agriculture sector as jugglery of figures as this would not give any immediate benefit to farmers. He, however, appreciated increase in remuneration of anganwari workers and sahayaks.

Shimla, February 28
Terming the Union Budget as directionless and disappointing, the BJP today said it would only worsen the prevalent inflationary situation. The Congress, on the other hand, feels it will effectively check inflation and bring about the much-needed relief.

State BJP chief Khimi Ram said the Budget was clearly anti-women as no tax relief had been given to them. “Raising the limit of income tax relief from Rs 1.60 lakh to Rs 1.80 lakh is an eyewash as this will hardly provide any succour to people,” he remarked.

Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh Thakur said the Union Budget was growth infusing and would definitely help check inflation. “The Prime Minister has presented a Budget in which the interest of all sections of society have been kept in mind and relief provided to all in one or the other way,” he said.

The Congress chief said a hike of 24 per cent in education sector was an exceptional step and a number of other initiatives had been taken to ensure infrastructure development. “The enhancement in remuneration of anganwari workers to almost double is a very welcome step and will address a major grievance of these workers,” he remarked.

The CPM said the Budget reflected the abandoning of the “aam admi” agenda by the UPA regime in pursuit of an aggressively neo-liberal agenda. “The cut in food subsidy by Rs 27 crore at a time when people are suffering due to high inflation and relentless rise in food prices exposes the lack of willingness to enact meaningful food security legislation,” said Rakesh Singha, state secretary of the CPM.

Shimla, February 28
Mayor Madhu Sood today presented the Municipal Budget for the year 2011-12. A deficit of Rs 69.49 crore was shown in the budget, about Rs 11 crore less than the budget last year.

Presenting the budget, the Mayor said there was a deficit of Rs 6.06 lakh as expenditure was far more than the income of the corporation. The proposed expenditure for the next financial year has been shown as Rs 195.72 crore, which includes Rs 1.20 crore earmarked for footing electricity and water bills.

“The money outstanding to the Irrigation Department for water supplied is almost Rs 112.25 crore, while a payment of Rs 7.91 crore is due to the Electricity Department for streetlighting,” she said.

Sood rued that water charges were far less than what was being charged by the Irrigation Department. She said a sum of Rs 4.24 crore had been earmarked for the maintenance and repairs of roads and railings.

While most of the councillors spoke about the need for resource mobilisation, it was pointed out that the MC should once again seek approval from the government for imposition of Green Tax as entry into the state capital on the lines of Manali, as this would improve the financial position.

Shimla, February 28
Notwithstanding the fact that the winery project proposed at Pragatinagar in Shimla district has failed to come up even after a decade of the signing of an agreement with Indage India Ltd, the government has finally initiated proceedings to at least get back the prime 29 bighas of land still under their possession.

Indage India, after ignoring two legal notices sent to it by the government earlier, has finally responded the third time and sought a personal hearing to settle the matter.

“The company has sought a personal hearing which we will grant it but the fact remains that it has failed to set up the winery for which we will take them to task,” said Narender Bragta, Horticulture Minister.

The BJP regime, during its earlier tenure, had signed an agreement with Indage India in April 2000 for setting up two wineries at Pragatinagar in Shimla and Nagwain in Mandi. However, till date the project has not come up while the prime government land given to it is still with the company. With the company now seeking a personal hearing, it is hoped that at least the land will be returned to the government.

Officials said Indage India had almost 28 bighas of land which was in the name of Agro Industrial Packaging India Ltd (AIPIL) before it was given to it. In fact, the issue had snowballed into a major controversy as the opposition party, mainly the CPM, had accused the government of failing to protect the interests of fruit growers and not taking legal action against the company.

Bragta said the Congress did little to ensure that the company set up the project and on the contrary they changed the terms and conditions of the agreement to suit it. While the initial agreement had 10 per cent share each of the HPMC and the state government, 20 per cent was the share of the growers and the remaining with the company but the Congress changed it to tilt the scales in favour of Indage.

The BJP regime was keen to have winery projects so that the fruit consumers locally could benefit and the farmers had the option of selling fruit closer home. In fact, the Horticulture Department had even imported foreign varieties of grapes so that the wine production could pick up. These imported plants were kept under observation in the farms of the department to judge the suitability of different varieties to the agro climatic conditions here before they were distributed to growers. 

Shimla, February 28
The buildings of 16,000 government schools in the state will be surveyed and all unsafe structures will be dismantled to prevent tragic incidents like the one that occurred in Una early this month in which four children died due to wall collapse. Funds will be provided on priority for repairs and reconstruction of such structrues.

Announcing this while replying to a call-attention motion on the issue, Education Minister ID Dhiman said instructions for carrying out the survey under the technical guidance of the Public Works Department were issued to the department soon after the fatal incident in Senior Secondary School, Chhattarpur Dhadha. He said not only the main buildings but also the boundarywalls and any other structure on the school premises would be inspected for safety. The heads of the institutions had been directed to make immediate arrangements to cordon off the unsafe portions to ensure children did not venture in such areas.

He informed the House that according to the report of the subdivisional magistrate, who inquired into the incident, the boundarywall collapsed due to technical deficiency. The 5.9 ft high new wall was constructed on 3.3 ft high old wall without a proper joint.

The report had held president of the gram shikhsa samiti (GSS) Bakshi Ram and a department functionary concerned responsible for the construction.

He said an FIR was lodged and five persons had been arrested in connection with the incident. They include then junior engineer Sandeep Thakur, Bakshi Ram, Rakesh Kumar and Surinder Kumar of the GSS and then head teacher Santosh Kaur.

The government had accepted the recommendations made in the report to ensure the quality of construction and made it mandatory for the junior engineer concerned to carry out at least three inspections and the project officer at least one in respect of works being executed by the GSS, school managing committees and the block development officer.

Earlier, Kaul Singh said the incident should serve as an eye-opener for the government and it should take urgent measures to prevent the recurrence of such accidents.

Bilaspur, February 28
A large number of residents, including khokha and rehri owners today staged a protest against the proposed demolition of encroachments on government land here and presented a memorandum to the Chief Minister through Deputy Commissioner Ritesh Chauhan urging the government to expedite declaration of a suitable policy to legalise the encroachments of Bhakra dam oustees of the 
town here.

Earlier, the demonstrators held a rally at Shri Luxmi Narayan Temple Complex which was addressed by nagar parishad president Rajni Sharma , vice president Kamlender Kashyap, , BJP leader Gita Ram Sharma, former MLA Krishan Kumar Kaushal, Himachal Kisan Manch state spokesman Kesh Pathania, Congress party, Bilaspur Sadar Mandal president Colonel( retd) AP Gauttam among others.

They said the government should take timely action to save the town from mass demolition as circumstances had forced the oustees to go in for encroachments.

Earlier, Beopar Mandal also observed a hartal and its members joined the protesters in support of the demand. 

Hamirpur, February 28
State spokesman of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee Deepak Sharma has demanded a high-level probe into the alleged “favours” being given to a private company by the state government under the Deen Dayal Kisan Bagwan Samridhi Yojna.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Sharma said, “Though 27 companies were involved in raising polyhouses providing inputs and irrigation facilities, one company had been given all benefits under this scheme.”

He said, “Out of a total of Rs 80 crore spent by the state government so far on this scheme, the works of Rs 40 crore have been given to one company.”

He further said, “ Though the state government is making wide publicity about the success of this scheme, about 4,000 farmers registered under the scheme have not been provided subsidy due to lack of funds.”

The Congress spokesman demanded a high-level probe into the allocation of funds under the scheme to this company. 

Sundernagar, February 28
While holding the Circuit Court here the president, Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Mandi, Rajeev Bhardwaj, has penalised Satluj Motors, Luna Pani, Mandi, for wrongly painting the door of a car belonging to Ravi Krishan, a resident of Sundernagar, who lodged a complaint with the Forum.

The company was directed to pay Rs 5,000 as repair charges, interest at 9% P.A from November 20, 2009, Rs 15,000 as compensation and Rs 3,000 as cost of the complaint.

The complainant had taken his car for repairs to Satluj Motors on November 12, 2009. At the time of delivery it was found that the front door of the car had been painted with a colour that did not match with the colour of the car. The complainant had neither asked the company to paint the door of the car nor was this fact mentioned in the Job card. During the delivery of the car on November 20, 2009, it was found that the company had charged Rs 5,000 for painting the door. The company stated before the Forum that the work was done according to the instructions of the complainant.

The Forum held that the act of the company amounted to deficiency in service provided under the Consumer Protection Act. It further held that the act had caused harassment to the complainant. 

Hamirpur, February 28
The Sarva Kalyankari Sabha yesterday organised a function at Sujanpur Tihra to honour the newly elected representatives of panchayati raj institutions (PRI) from the Sujanpur assembly segment.

Cutting across party lines, zila parishad members, BDC members, gram panchayat presidents and vice-presidents, panchayat members and members of the Sujanpur nagar panchayat attended the function.

President of the Sarva Kalyankari Sabha Rajinder Rana honoured the newly elected PRI members by offering a cap and a memento. — TNS

Dharamsala, February 28
Kangra district has taken a lead to tackle the problem of weeds that are taking over grasslands in the state. It has decided to include the work of uprooting weeds under the MNREGA.

Kangra Deputy Commissioner RS Gupta said the uprooting of weeds had been clubbed with the plantation drive that was included in the MNREGA. Block Development Officers have been directed to identify areas in each village that were infested with weeds. The people would be employed under the MNREGA to clear the areas from weeds in April and May. The cleared areas can later be used for plantation in the monsoon. Village panchayats have been advised to use technologies developed by Palampur Agriculture University to eradicate weeds, he said.

The weeds are fast taking over forest lands, grasslands and open areas in the state.

In Himachal, about 11 per cent of the land is under agriculture. The rest is under forest areas or grasslands. The open areas that are not put under agriculture have provided ideal conditions for invading weeds to flourish in the state.

The increasing weed infestation in the state is posing threat to the health of humans and animals.

Dr NN Angiras, senior agronomist (weed science) at Palampur Agriculture University, told The Tribune that parthenium (congress grass), lantana (panchphuli), ageratum (neela phulnu), chromolaena (kali basuti) and bidens (laamb ghass) are the major foreign weeds that have spread to such an extent in the state that they are posing threat to human lives. Scientists of the Indian Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology (IHBT) have recorded the presence of another South American weed synedrella vialis in the state.

As per the conservative estimates, the weeds have spread over 14 lakh hectares in the state. They have invaded forest lands, orchards, pastures and grass lands in all the districts expect the cold desert areas of Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts. The parthenium weed is causing health hazards like bronchitis, dermatitis, fever and vomiting in human beings.

A survey conducted by scientists of the agriculture university said 20 per cent inhabitants of the state were found to be suffering from allergic effects due to weeds. Even in animals, ill-effects of weeds such as loss of hair, loss of weight and damage to liver has been reported.

In grass lands, invasion by weeds has reduced productivity by 90 per cent in many cases. The over exploitation of grasslands has allowed the weeds to dominate over local grass varieties. The infestation of weeds in the state has increased to such an extent that scientists are feeling that it is posing threat to plant bio-diversity and medical plant wealth of the state.

The scientists of the university have developed technologies to revive grass lands and control the growth of weeds. The technologies include releasing of Mexican beetle (zygograma beetle) to control the growth of parthenium weed.