New Delhi, March 21
In a major relief to the Himachal Pradesh Government, the Supreme Court has stayed a High Court verdict directing the government to follow the 2000 policy for regularisation of daily wage workers in 2006 instead of the 2006 policy.

A Bench comprising Justices RV Raveendran and AK Patnaik also issued notices to such workers who are parties to the petition filed by the state government.

The Bench passed the order on March 18 after senior counsel Govind Goel, assisted by counsel Mohan Lal Sharma, contended that the state government would be faced with an “unwarranted financial burden of several hundred crores of rupees” if it were to implement the July 2010 HC verdict.

Granting interim stay, the court asked the counsel for the employees to file their counter affidavits in six weeks. The state government would have to file its rejoinder in four weeks thereafter.

On December 1, 2006, the state government had created 4,941 posts under the policy instructions issued on June 9, 2006. Under the 2006 policy, all daily wage employees, who had completed eight years of continuous service as on March 31, 2004, were eligible for regularisation, subject to the condition that they should have worked for a minimum of 240 days in each calendar year.

However, after accepting regularisation with effect from December 26, 2006, some of them approached the HC seeking benefits from the March 31, 2004, cut-off date stipulated under the 2006 policy despite the fact that the government had clarified that the policy would not have any retrospective effect.

Relying on the May/June 2000 policy, the HC had directed the conferment of work charged status on daily wage workers prior to their regularisation even though the 2006 policy did not envisage any such status as the work charged establishment had ceased to exist.

The 2000 policy was not meant to be an “ongoing exercise,” having been contemplated as a one-time measure to address a specific issue that had cropped up that time, the state government argued. 

Palampur, March 21
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal yesterday inaugurated a mini secretariat building here built at a cost of Rs 5 crore. The complex will house all offices of the state government under one roof which will facilitate visitors.

The Chief Minister said the BJP government was committed to overall development of the state and the construction of the mini secretariat added another milestone in the development of this region.

Referring to development projects going on in Kangra district, he said the state government had given top priority to bring the maximum area under irrigation. At present, out of the total 55.67 lakh hectares geographical area of the state, only 5.83 lakh hectares falls under the “net sown area” category.

The Chief Minister said the state government had laid stress to cover the maximum area under irrigation facilities to increase food production and encouraged farmers to adopt crop diversification.

Rs 216.38 crore was spent on providing irrigation facilities in the state during the current financial year. A target had been fixed to cover 3,600 hectares under minor irrigation schemes and 3,000 hectares under major and medium irrigation schemes. Since the BJP assumed power, over 11,000 hectares had been brought under irrigation out of which 6,000 hectares had been covered under minor irrigation and 5,000 hectares under major and medium irrigation projects.

Hamirpur, March 21
Chief Minister PK Dhumal will provide a grant of Rs 45 lakh for the construction of a pensioner bhawan at Hamirpur being constructed at a cost of Rs 90 lakh.

Addressing the pensioners after laying the foundation stone of the pensioner bhawan here yesterday on the foundation day of Himachal Pradesh Pensioners’ Welfare Association, Dhumal said the state government had made every effort to make timely payment of arrears and other allowances to the state government employees and pensioners despite facing acute financial crunch.

Elaborating the point further, he said arrears amounting to Rs 2,204 crore had been disbursed to them out of total of Rs 3,600 crore before March 31, 2011, accrued due to revision of pay scales. — TNS

Dr Lobsang Sangay won the preliminary round by a margin of more than 10,000 votes and is ahead of the next closest contestant out of a very small total voting population and is being considered as a favourite 

Dharamsala, March 21
The Tibetan parliament-in-exile is unlikely to decide on the retirement of the Dalai Lama during its current session that will continue till March 25.

Sources here said the matter was likely to be referred to a committee of parliamentarians. The committee would try to find out a middle way to come out of the present deadlock.

The deadlock has been created after the Dalai Lama refused the request of the Tibetan parliament to reconsider his decision to retire as political and administrative head.

The sources said as per the Tibetan Charter, the parliament-in-exile could ask the Dalai Lama only once to reconsider his request to retire. With The Dalai Lama refusing to budge, the Tibetan parliament is bound to take a decision on the matter.

The matter is not going to be decided during the term of the present government-in-exile that is going to end in May. It is likely to be taken by the new parliament and prime minister of Tibetan parliament.

Speaker of the Tibetan parliament Penpa Tsering, talking to newsmen, said the parliament was now working to arrive at a consensus on two other options.

These included first to accept the suggestion of the Dalai Lama to give up as political and administrative head and make changes in the Tibetan Charter accordingly. If members said they agreed with the Dalai Lama's proposal, then separate committees would have to be formed. Then there would be a long process, something that could not be done within the period of this house because the 14th parliament was also coming to an end by May and new parliament and cabinet would come into being by June, he said.

He further said another alternative was to try to find a middle way wherein the elected representatives could take responsibility for executive affairs with the Dalai Lama in charge of the political leadership.

The Dalai Lama's government-in-exile was not recognised by any country, including India. Some 1,40,000 Tibetans now lived in exile, over 1,00,000 of them in various parts of India. Over six million Tibetans live in Tibet.

Nurpur, March 21
Only half-an-hour’s hurricane in Rit and Baranda villages in Nurpur subdivision on Saturday night threw normal life out of gear.

A visit to the affected rural areas revealed that a large number of old mango and other trees had been uprooted and roofs of a large number of houses blown off due to strong wind. A number of electricity poles had also been uprooted, damaging power supply. The disrupted water and power supply could not be restored till this evening. The hurricane destroyed the standing wheat crop.

SDM Susheel Sharma said he had received information in this connection on Monday and he visited the affected area this afternoon and directed the IPH and Electricity authorities to restore water and power supply on a war-footing. The field revenue staff has also been asked to assess individual losses due to hurricane, he added.