Shimla, March 22
A life trustee of the International Roerich Memorial Trust (IRMT), Shakti Singh Chandel, has alleged gross violations of the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act (FCRA) by functionaries of the trust and lodged a formal complaint with the Director General of Police (DGP) along with copies of documents to substantiate the charges.

He met the DGP, DS Manhas, here yesterday and brought to his notice that the management of the trust was violating the provisions of the FCRA by accepting donations in cash and kind from foreign nationals in an unauthorised manner.

As per the law, no funds were to be received without the FCRA clearance. Any person found guilty of that would be liable for prosecution. He also gave details of specific instances of violation of the law, including direct foreign contributions received by the trust’s curator-cum-executive director.

He said he had already lodged a complaint with the Chief Minister regarding the irregularities being committed in the overall functioning of the trust. Further, the functionaries had been violating the instructions of the executive committee and ignoring the observations of the auditors.

Since all donations had been collected in defiance of orders in a non-transparent manner, the real quantum of donations the functionaries had collected needed to be thoroughly investigated.

Chandel had last month submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister PK Dhumal regarding the alleged irregularities on which he had ordered an inquiry. The issue is likely to come up during the next meeting of the trust slated for March 25.

Dharamsala, March 22
China has dubbed the favourite candidate for Tibetan prime minister-in-exile (Kalon Tripa), Dr Lobsang Sangay, as a terrorist. Sources here said the official mouthpiece of the Chinese government, People Daily, has published an article titled, Terrorist poised to rule "Tibetan government in-exile"?

Lobsang Sangay has been labelled as the terrorist due to his former association with the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) that China dubs as a terrorist organisation. Lobsang was an executive member of the TYC in 1992.

The TYC is the biggest organisation of Tibetans that claims to have membership of 30,000. The organisation that predominantly has the Tibetan youth as its members is known for radical stance of complete freedom for Tibet. The TYC also differed with the middle way approach of the Dalai Lama.

The TYC also campaigned for its former executive member Lobsang Sangay during the elections held on March 20.

Sangay, who was present at McLeodganj today, termed the article a “joke”.

When contacted by The Tribune, Sangay said the reaction of the Chinese authorities had surprised him. The Chinese government wants to present me as “worst case scenario” before the election results are declared. However, it was as a desperate attempt on the part of the Chinese government to misguide the Tibetans, he said.

When asked what would be his priority in case he was elected as Kalon Tripa, Sangay, echoing the stance of the TYC, said he would work for the freedom of Tibet.

About the retirement plans of the Dalai Lama, he said: “I feel that he should not quit as political head of Tibetans. It will be good for the Tibetan community in case he continues to head the Tibetan government. Citing reasons for it, he said most of the countries recognised the Dalai Lama but not the Tibetan government-in-exile. So, his presence will help the Tibetan cause”.

About the middle way approach of the Dalai Lama in resolving the Tibetan issue, Sangay said the Dalai Lama was their supreme leader and his approach was for the benefit of all.

Sangay grew up in a Tibetan settlement in Darjeeling and did his schooling from a Tibetan refugee school. Starting from humble beginnings, he completed his BA (Honours) and LLB from Delhi University. In 1992, he was elected as the youngest executive member of the Tibetan Youth Congress, the biggest NGO of Tibetans.

In 1995, as a Fulbright Scholar, he moved to the US. He obtained his Masters degree and then Doctorate in Law from Harvard Law School.

His research work focuses on democracy and history of the Tibetan government-in-exile from 1959-2004. In 2005, he was granted waiver by the Department of Education to continue his academic work in the US.

Sangay is an expert on international law, democratic constitutionalism and conflict resolution.

Shimla, March 22
The CPM has condemned the decision of the government to transfer en masse more than 31 laboratory technicians from the Indira Gandhi Medical College to various health centres in the state and alleged that the hidden motive was to privatise the laboratory services.

The transfers had been ordered in the garb of promotions and the intention was to sell out the laboratories of the medical college to private entrepreneurs, it pointed out.

The technicians were to join before March 25 but they were not being relieved as a team of the Medical Council of India was visiting the college from March 23 and 24. However, it was not possible for these technicians to join duty at Chamba and other such far-flung areas by March 25.

The party warned the government against further privatisation of health services which would be opposed tooth and nail.

At present, the IGMC was being run by just 30 trainees and the skeleton staff of regular laboratory technicians and as a result patients were finding it extremely difficult to get the results of the tests in time.

Even routine tests like ESR and blood sugar were taking at least 2 to 3 days for want of people, providing a fertile ground for the private players to exploit them as they would be forced to get their tests done outside the hospital.

The CPM has decided to hold a protest demonstration against such moves on March 29 at the IGMC. The party called upon the people to oppose such moves and resist the onslaught on the domain of public health services.

Manali, March 22
Two persons were killed in an avalanche, about 18 km from here, today on the Solang-Dhundhi road.

Border Roads Organisation (BRO) chief engineer (Project Rohtang Tunnel) PK Mahajan said the incident had taken place when a van in which they were travelling this morning was hit by an avalanche on the Solang-Dhundhi road and the vehicle rolled down.

Mahajan said BRO officials, who were coming from the site of Rohtang Tunnel, Dhundhi, informed the authorities about the accident and immediately a rescue team rushed to the spot and retrieved the bodies from the avalanche.

The police said the bodies of the deceased had been identified as Nihal Chand of Khoksar (Lahoul-Spiti) and Babli Dass from Orissa, working in the Rohtang Tunnel project in Strabag Afcons Joint Venture. He said the bodies of the deceased had been sent for post-mortem.

Nurpur, March 22
State Congress general secretary Ajay Mahajan, who was a Congress nominee in the last assembly election from Nurpur segment, has demanded from the state government to announce a special relief package to the affected farmers and fruit growers of Rit and Baranda gram panchayats in Nurpur subdivision who had lost their standing crops in a hurricane that hit on Saturday evening. He said wheat, vegetable and fruit crops in the area had experienced an immense loss due to this natural calamity.

He said these areas had already lashed with hailstorm six months before in which farmers had lost their paddy crop. Regretting failure of restoration of power and water supply in the affected villages even after the third day today, he underlined the need of requisition of a task force to restore power and water supply lines. — OC

Sundernagar, March 22
The seven-day state-level Nalwar fair, the biggest cattle fair of North India, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal here today.

He headed a procession which started from the PWD rest house to the Nagaun Khud where he performed a puja of a pair of bullocks and later hoisted the flag of the fair at Jawar Park.

While addressing the gathering, he said by the end of 2012 every panchayat in the state would have its independent veterinary dispensary. He said till now 1,272 panchayats were not having any veterinary dispensary and farmers were facing problems as they were not in a position to shift cattle to nearby dispensaries. So this year, the government had opened 187 veterinary dispensaries and 900 veterinary pharmacists were being trained.

The Chief Minister also laid the foundation stone of a Rs 1.52 crore drinking water scheme at Khilra.

The Chief Minister halted at the construction site of the Press Club and sanctioned Rs 5 lakh for it.

Sundernagar MLA Roop Singh, Nachan MLA Dile Ram also spoke on the occasion and thanked the Chief Minister for sanctioning various developmental works in the area.

Panchayati Raj Minister Jai Ram Thakur and Gopalpur MLA Inder Singh along with other senior BJP leaders and officials were also present on the occasion.

Dharamsala, March 22
With an aim to find out a solution to the delay being caused in the construction of roads on forest lands, Public Works Minister Thakur Gulab Singh here today directed the DFO and the concerned engineer of the department to hold monthly meetings and to share information with the government.

The minister was presiding over a meeting of the complaints redress committee at the zila parishad. The committee discussed 22 old and 12 new issues related to various departments. Thakur mentioned that such committees had been formed in each district and the members of the team could reach a solution by taking up the issues in front of the committees.

“An amount of Rs 51 lakh has been approved for the construction of Peersluhi school which will be constructed soon. It has been decided by the government to construct new structures for the schools which are in a poor state,” the minister added.

Deputy Commissioner RS Gupta said the administration had been working to solve issues related to various departments.

Solan, March 22
Director General (DG), ESIC, Dr CS Kedar today flagged off the first wellness van service in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) industrial area to facilitate industrial workers.

Speaking on the occasion, the DG said the van was well-equipped with all modern equipment and a team of doctors along with emergency medicines for immediate assistance to the workers. A toll free number would soon be available to avail its services and the van would initially conduct free health check-up of the workers. He said this facility would soon be made available to the other industrial areas of the state.

Prem Sharma, president, Nalagarh Industries’ Association, said since the ESIC had empanelled renowned private hospitals in Chandigarh and the BBN, an optional ESI facility should be made available to the corporate employees whose monthly salary exceeded Rs 15,000.

YS Guleria, general secretary, BBN Industries’ Association, said at least three such vans should be made available in the BBN area with one each for Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh as each of them had a cluster of industries spread over a vast distance.

Shimla, March 22
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) organised an award ceremony to felicitate institutions for their performance in the promotion of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and Farmers Clubs in the state.

The bank has been taking major developmental initiatives such as promoting the micro-finance sector through the SHG Bank Linkage Programme, promoting technology absorption and access to farm credit through Farmers Clubs, capacity building of villages through the village development plan. It recently introduced a major initiative through the Centre’s Dairy Entrepreneurship Development Project called the Doodh Ganga Scheme.

Dr KR Dhiman, VC, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, was the chief guest of the function over which AD Ratnoo, chief general manager, NABARD, presided. He complimented the bank for instituting the awards for motivating banks, NGOs, Kisan clubs and field-level development agencies.

Shimla, March 22
Renowned spiritual guru and founder of the Art of Living Sri Sri Ravishankar today made a strong plea for creating the institution of “Lok Pal” to curb corruption in high places.

Interacting with mediapersons here, he said the menace was eating into the system and time had come to deal with it effectively. The Lok Pal Bill had been hanging fire for long and he was also pursuing it as removal of corruption was one of the four objectives of his countrywide mass awareness campaign.

He had already covered 11 states. He said his organisation was persuading bureaucrats to prominently display on their tables that “they do not accept bribes”.

He supported the campaign launched by yog guru Ram Dev against corruption and for retrieval of black money stashed away in tax haven countries but said he did not intended to float any political forum. Honest candidates should be supported irrespective of the party affiliation as good leaders were need both in the ruling set up and the opposition.

Later he also addressed a huge gathering on the historic Ridge as part of the Mahasamagam.