Shimla, March 8
The Economic Survey for the year 2010-11 presented in the assembly today pegged the annual growth rate at 9 per cent with the per capita income expected to increase by 9.4 per cent.

Presenting the Economic Survey in the House on the eve of presentation of the budget for the next year, Chief Minister PK Dhumal informed the House that the economy of the state had been progressing at a uniform pace and was expected to touch a high growth rate of 9 per cent, which was better than the national growth of 8.6 per cent. The growth rate during the last two years was 7.4 and 8.1 per cent.

He said the per capita rose from Rs 46,019 in 2008-09 to Rs 50,365 in 2009-10, an increase of 9.4 per cent. He said the economy had shown a shift from the agriculture sector to industries and services with the percentage contribution of agriculture and allied sectors declining over the years.

The growth of the primary sector, which includes agriculture and allied services, forestry and mining, was minus 5.7 per cent, mainly due to adverse weather conditions while the secondary and tertiary sectors grew by 12.2 per cent and 11.6 per cent. The performance of the agriculture sector alone was poor with negative growth of minus 11.2 per cent.

The total share of secondary and tertiary sectors to the GSDP was about 79 per cent while the primary sector contributed only 21 per cent. The revenue receipts registered a marginal increase from Rs 10,536 crore to Rs 11,588 crore during 2009-10 while it was expected to grow by 9.98 per cent during the current financial year.

The tax revenue was estimated at Rs 2,955 crore with 38.74 per cent growth in VAT during 2010-11, an increase of 13.52 per cent over the last year’s receipts of Rs 2,603 crore.

The total fruit production took a quantum leap from 3.82 lakh MT in 2009-10 to 9.61 lakh MT in 2010-11 with apple crop accounting for 8.92 lakh MT.

The total employment in the state in the government and private sectors was 2,65,537 and 1,15,599 in 3,858 public sector and 1,233 private sector establishments. The foodgrains production declined to 10.17 lakh MT in 2009-10 while the target for the current year was 15.79 lakh MT.

The survey indicates an increase in electricity consumption from 5,461 million units in 2008-09 to 5,814 million units in 2009-10 while the quantity of power sold outside the state declined from 1,498 million units to 1,284 million units.

Shimla, March 7
Chief Minister PK Dhumal today lashed out at the Congress for levelling unsubstantiated allegations for the sake of criticism in the absence of concrete issues against the BJP regime in the state.

The Chief Minister today gave his reply to the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s Address in the absence of the Congress members, who had already staged a walkout after they were disallowed by the Speaker to participate in the motion of thanks on the Governor’s Address. Dhumal accused the Congress of staging walkouts only to capture media headlines and not on concrete issues.

Dhumal said it was unfortunate that Congress members rather than raising issues concerning the public had only tried to criticise the government for the hack of it. “If there was any seriousness and truth in their allegations, they should have come out with specific names and charges and we would have certainly ordered an inquiry,” he remarked.

He dismissed allegations by CLP leader Vidya Stokes and HPCC chief Kaul Singh about the bad condition of roads in the state. “The agreement for the World Bank-funded Theog-Hatkoti road with the Chinese company was signed by the Congress regime and there was little that the government could do but efforts are on to ensure that work is completed by June 2013,” he stated.

He said as compared to 900 kms of renewal coating of roads by the Congress in over four years, his regime had in three years got 4687 kms of road renewed.

“The Congress members have raised the issue of closure of carton factory at Gumma but it is because of their failure that it had produced far less than its capacity of one crore carton every year,” he said.

He said the Congress had not right to criticise his regime for naming schemes after their leaders. “Each time the Congress came to power, they changed the name of schemes started by us but we never objected and now when we named the ambulance scheme after Atal Bihari Vajpayee, they are raising a hue and cry,” he remarked.

Shimla, March 8
Chief Minister PK Dhumal said today there was no proposal for creation of new district, subdivision or tehsil as of now as the Centre had directed the states not to create any new administrative units in view of the ongoing Census operation.

He was replying to a query raised by Kaul Singh Thakur, Sohan Lal and Gangu Ram Musafir about the creation of new districts during the Question Hour in the Assembly. “As of now there is no proposal whatsoever to create any district or other administrative unit,” he said.

Thakur said there was complete confusion with regard to creation of districts as the Chief Minister had himself announced that Rohru and Nurpur would be made districts. “We want the Chief Minister to clarify the position in this regard and also inform the financial expenditure that will be incurred on creation of a district,” he said.

Dhumal said at one time his regime was keen to create districts of Nurpur, Rohru and Dehra and had even appointed an Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), who was removed by the Congress regime.

In reply to another question raised by Ram Lal Markandey about disease afflicting several willow trees in Lahaul-Spiti, the Chief Minister said a team of experts had pointed out that the problem had cropped up due to monoculture and tress being planted on sloping side.

In reply to a query raised by Baldev Sharma of the BJP, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister, Jai Ram Thakur said the election of a person elected in the panchayati raj could be challenged in case he had encroached on the government land.

Shimla, March 8
The High Court today directed the Chief Minister being the ex officio chairman of the State Board for Wildlife to convene a meeting of all stakeholders (farmers, animal rights organisations, forest officials and other NGOs concerned), including petitioners, and take appropriate action in the interest of farmers and on the monkey menace within six weeks.

While dictating the order in an open court, a division bench comprising

Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Sanjay Karol observed that the Chief Minister should protect the interest of farmers and wildlife.

The court also directed the principal secretary (Wildlife) to appraise the court about the impact of air guns.

Earlier, the court by an interim order had restrained the state government from issuing any permits for hunting of the animal causing threat to crops and property of the citizens and directed the state chief wildlife warden and the authorised officers to use alternative methods of using air guns, air pistols and air rifles for protecting the property.

The Chief Justice, while hearing the case, observed that the court was the guardian of animals, who cannot raise their voice in the court of law. The court said prima facie killing of the animals was not the only solution but the state government must make citizens aware about other methods of protecting their property.

The court passed this order on a petition filed by an NGO of Kasauli and

Chandigarh, the People for Animals, for quashing the notification issued by the state on November 3, 2010, allowing the culling of wild animals. The petitioner organisation termed the decision of the state as irrational and against the Mandate of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

In its petition, the NGO stated that the state had allowed the wanton killing of wild animals, especifically the wild bore, neel gai and monkeys, prompting hundreds of farmers to apply for the permit to kill the animals.

The NGO challenged the action of the state on the ground that Section 11 of the Act seeks to balance the protection of wildlife with the interest of the society when there is danger to human life or property, including standing crops.

Hamirpur, March 8
Taking a serious note of lapse on the part of centre superintendent for inadvertently opening a packet of question papers of different class in the ongoing HP Board of School Education (HPBSE) examination at Government Senior Secondary School (GSSS) for boys centre here, the HPBSE authorities have removed the superintendent Mukesh Kumar and appointed Pawan Kumar, a biology lecturer in GSSS Baduhak as the new superintendent at GSSS for boys at Hamirpur for remaining examinations.

The centre superintendent of GSSS (Boys) Hamirpur had inadvertently opened the packet of question papers containing papers of Class XI during the scheduled paper of English of matriculation examination on March 5.

When this mistake was detected in the centre, the question papers were immediately collected by the supervising staff and sealed back in the packet after which correct question papers were distributed.

The superintendent had termed this as “a mistake which was rectified immediately as the question papers of Class XI, distributed inadvertently, were collected soon”.

The secretary of the HPBSE had sent a team of board officials to inquire into this incident, who submitted a report to 
the board.

Acting on this report, the HPBSE removed the centre superintendent appointed at GSSS for boys, Hamirpur, holding him guilty for this lapse.

Assistant secretary of the HPBSE Neelam Sood said, “Since opening the packet of wrong question paper was a serious lapse on the part of the superintendent, the board has removed him and appointed a new person as a centre superintendent there.” 

Solan, March 8
With poor upkeep of major roads and bridges in Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN), investors today said they were expecting more funds for their maintenance in the state’s budget which would be announced tomorrow.

A senior executive of Havells India said since the condition of both link and main roads was deplorable, the government should ensure that more funds were set aside for this purpose. Apart from this, more hospitals and schools would ensure development of the industrial hub.

Decrying the levy of entry tax, president of the Nalagarh Industries Association Prem Sharma said this should be rolled back and no fresh tax should be levied on the industry as the investors were facing problems like poor road connectivity and high freight charges which had increased the production cost.

Since no raw material was available in Himachal, they were compelled to outsource these from the other states, but the entry tax further added to the production cost.

Ravinder Bansal, president, HP Steel and Alloy Manufacturers Association, said either the raw material should be available in the state or the entry tax should be rolled back as they were already facing the disadvantage of rollback of the excise benefit after the lapse of the 2003 central industrial package.

Prem Sharma also demanded that the BBN Development Agency, which had been thriving on the basis of fee collected in lieu of change of land use, had failed to generate adequate resources after the central package was withdrawn last year. The state government should, therefore, provide adequate funds to ensure its functioning smoothly for the growth of the industry.

Sharma also added that the government should reduce the hike in power duty which was increased from 13 to 20 per cent for large-scale industries last year and the industry was hopeful of this announcement as the Chief Minister had promised to look into this crucial issue. 

Dharamsala, March 8
The state government has cleared the project for setting up Akshardham temple at Dharamsala. Sources here told The Tribune that the project had been cleared after hectic lobbying by Kishan Kapoor, Minister for Industries, who belongs to the area.

Earlier, the district administration had identified 5 hectare of land in Khaniara village near Dharamsala for the construction of Akshardham temple. The sources said the district administration had sent a proposal to the state government to give the land on lease of the Akshardham society for 99 years.

Kishan Kapoor is of the view that the temple would promote religious tourism in the area. The society was seeking a large chunk of land in or around Dharamsala for the temple. However, the district administration had identified just 5 hectares for the project.

The site is near the Aghanjan Mahadev temple, located in Khaniara. A section of local villagers is opposing the location of the Akshardham temple. They are saying that their local temple is an old Shiva temple. The government acquired land of the temple under the Land Ceiling Act. However, now the land is being transferred to another temple trust. If the government wants to give the land, then give it back to the Aghanjan Mahadev temple.

They are also alleging that the construction of the Akshardham temple would decrease the importance of their local temple.

Certain Congress leaders had also raised objections to the Akshardham temple project, alleging that on one hand the government was maintaining that it did not have any land in Dharamsala for the central university, while on the other, they were giving land for the temple project. However, now the temple society had decided to curtail its land limit to just 5 hectares, it had silenced the critics.

Kangra district already has vast potential of religious tourism. It has many places of Hindu religious importance, including the Jwalamukhi temple, the Chamunda temple, the Baglamukhi temple, the Kangra temple and Baijnath. The Akshardham temples that are known across the world for their beauty and grandeur will add religious tourism potential of Kangra district.

Shimla, March 8
Liquor will become costlier in the state with the state Cabinet giving nod for raising various levies and import fee on the lines of the neighbouring Punjab to help promote the indigenous industry.

The excise policy for 2011-12 targets a revenue of over Rs 750 crore from the sale of liquor, up from the current year’s target of Rs 550 crore. The actual revenue realisation during the current year is likely to be over Rs 580 crore. With the Punjab eyeing a 33 per cent growth, the state is expecting a similar growth.

There have been no major changes in the policy but the liquor quota has been increased in line with the nominal growth trend and import duty has been raised to the levels comparable with Punjab to protect and promote the indigenous liquor industry.

However, care has been taken to ensure that the rates of liquor remain cheaper than Punjab to avoid loss of revenue due to smuggling from the neighbouring state.

In 2009-10, the sale of liquor fetched a revenue of Rs 501 crore against a target of Rs 480 crore, registering a growth of 18 per cent. A similar trend is continuing during the current year.

Kangra, March 8
A mechanic of a Tata showroom at Gurkhari on the Pathankot-Mandi National Highway was crushed to death between two vehicles allegedly due to the negligence of a showroom worker.

Tension gripped on the outskirts of the town today as an irate mob protested against the incident and demanded arrest of the accused. They also blocked the highway.

Kangra District Additional Police Chief Sanjeev Gandhi said Ankush (22), a resident of Thanpuri village, worked as a mechanic in the Tata showroom here. He was working on the rear bumper of a Nano car when an Indigo car from his behind, which was driven by another worker of the showroom, crushed him to death. He said Ankush died on the spot but was rushed to the Tanda medical college where doctors declared him brought dead. The worker responsible for the Ankush’s death fled from the scene, Gandhi said.

He said the police had registered a case under Section 304 of the IPC.

Meanwhile, a large number of the people held a dharna outside the showroom and blocked the Pathankot-Mandi National Highway for more than four hours and blockade continued till the filing of this report. — OC

Sundernagar, March 8
One person was killed and 17 injured when a jeep in which they were travelling went out of control at Kateru village on the Sundernagar-Karsog road and fell 300-ft down the road, 30 km from here today.

According to the police, these persons were going to Aukal village from Kateru village after attending a marriage. The driver could not control the jeep and it went off the road.

The deceased was identified as Fateh Singh who was owner-cum-driver of the jeep. Local residents helped the injured and shifted them to a hospital.