Shimla, March 29
Heated exchanges were witnessed in the assembly today over the re-sale of an industrial unit by Goodwill Industries during the previous Congress regime with the Cabinet sanction.

There was a complete pandemonium in the House as members of the treasury benches and the Opposition levelled allegations and counter-allegations. The issue of alleged irregularity in allowing Goodwill Industries, Summer Hill, to re-sell the Himalayan Fertiliser unit was raised by Randhir Sharma of the BJP during question hour as he pointed out that what was the compulsion under which the Cabinet had allowed re-sale.

Agitated Congress members were on their toes as Kaul Singh Thakur and GS Bali accused Industries Minister Kishan Kapoor of misleading the House and the media by not placing all facts before the House.

When members from both sides refused to relent, the Speaker had to intervene and said it was for the first time in three years that he had to be on his toes to pacify members.

Even as nothing could be heard in the din, Independent MLA Rakesh Pathania pointed fingers at the previous Congress regime in giving undue benefit to a company. This agitated the Congress members who had heated exchanges with him.

Seeing the uproar on the issue, Chief Minister PK Dhumal urged the Congress members not to get agitated as the matter was being investigated by the Vigilance Bureau which had registered an FIR on September 23, 2009. “Once the investigations are complete, everyone will know the truth,” he remarked.

He said nobody was casting aspersions but the Cabinet had not cited any reasons for overruling its earlier decision nor had it made any mention of the cost of the industrial unit that had been set up on the plot.

Earlier, the minister said Goodwill Industries was given the unit, owned by GIC, at a cost of Rs 3.06 crore in March 2004 which it resold for Rs 7.51 crore to Indian Card Clothing in 2007. “The condition that the unit cannot be re-sold has been violated as then Cabinet had granted approval,” he said.

Reiterating that the minister was misleading everyone, Kaul Singh pointed out that Goodwill Industries had set up a unit, the cost of which had not been taken into account. Bali demanded that the minister should place the copy of the initial advertisements, agreement and all other documents to clarify the position.

Dharamsala, March 29
BJP MP from Kangra Rajan Sushant extended support to ETT teachers who staged a dharna outside the Dharamsala mini secretariat. The MP surprised everybody when he sat on a dharna with the protesting teachers here today.

The teachers have done their course from Jammu and Kashmir. However, the Himachal Government is not considering them for employment.

Later, while addressing a press conference in Dharamsala, Sushant justified the demand for narcoanalysis of party leaders from the state. He said, “There is nothing wrong in it. Even I am ready to under go the narcoanalysis.”

He also said Independent MLA from Nurpur Rakesh Pathania, who had organised a press conference against him yesterday, was playing in the hands of a few conspirators. Sushant said he would file a defamation case against Pathania.

He also said he was planning to launch a massive campaign against the Union Government on seven basic demands of the state. The demands included the state’s share in Chandigarh, step-motherly treatment by the Union Ministry for Railways, royalty over water of the state, power projects should be implemented by the state government.

Shimla, March 29
The HP High Court has issued notices to the additional chief secretary (Forest) and the principal secretary (PWD) on the issue of unscientific approach of the state PWD and the Forest Department while constructing the roads in the state.

While passing this order, a green Bench comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjay Karol further directed them to file their affidavit before April 29.

The Bench passed this order on a letter based on a petition wherein the petitioner mention the news report published in The Tribune under the headline, “Road debris killing trees” on February 2. In this report, it was mentioned that the PWD was not very keen on adopting scientific methods of road construction as numerous highways and rural roads being constructed in the state continued taking a heavy toll on fragile hill environment.

Instead of the cut-and-fill method, which minimises debris, the PWD has been resorting to reckless cutting of hills and throwing the debris down on the slopes, destroying vegetation, even big trees in some cases. In fact, the impact of the debris lasts long and the trees choked by it keep drying up. After taking cognizance on this, the Bench listed this matter for further hearing on April 29.

Shimla, March 29
Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Minister Ravinder Singh Ravi today said 84 per cent of the population in the state was being provided tap water supply, which would be further enhanced by covering all habitations in the far-flung areas of the state.

Replying to cut motion moved in the state assembly by Congress legislators, the IPH Minister said during the last three years, drinking water and irrigation schemes worth Rs 495 crore had been approved by NABARD for Himachal. “We have set a target of installing 2500 handpumps in the state during 2011-12 and proposed to bring 7,000 hectares of land under irrigation for which budgetary provision of Rs 285.62 crore had been made,” he said.

He said the BJP regime during the last three years had made efforts to ensure that people were provided safe drinking water. “A national sample survey has reported that 84 per cent of the population in Himachal has access to tap water,” he remarked.

Ravi said work on two major irrigation schemes, Shah Nehar and Balh valley, would be completed by 2012.

“I do not agree with the members that no new schemes are being approved and I would likle to assure them that if need be, the task of preparing detailed project report (DPR) will be outsourced so that there are no unnecessary delays in seeking approvals,” he said.

Earlier, Congress members Gangu Ram Musafir, Mukesh Agnihotri and Suresh Bhardwaj said there should be no discrimination on political grounds in installing handpumps in the constituencies of Congress legislators. Agnihotri pointed out that no new DPRs were being made and with a lot of handpumps lying out of order, people were facing a lot of problem.

The cut motion was defeated by voice vote as the Congress legislators said they were not satisfied with the minister’s reply.

Shimla, March 29
Senior BJP leader and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Murli Manohar Joshi, today said it was not possible to resolve the dispute between India and Pakistan through cricket diplomacy.

Joshi said the government should not link political diplomacy with sports. “Till Pakistan does not feel strongly that there should be complete peace and harmony in the subcontinent, it is not possible to find a solution to the pending issues between the two neighbours,” he remarked. He added that Pakistan would have to decide whether the final word on all matters of dispute between India and Pakistan would be of the elected government or the Army.

The BJP leader said the JPC constituted to look into the 2G Spectrum scam did not have the powers to summon the Prime Minister or any other minister. He dismissed the possibility of the JPC summoning the PM with regard to the 2G scam. “As far as the functioning of the JPC and the PAC is concerned there is no question of any disagreement or variance in opinion as the two will function independently from constitutional angle,” he opined.

Talking about the growing international conflicts he said developed nations wanted to dictate terms to the oil producing nations. “Rather than the 21st century being known for development, it has ushered in tensions and conflicts, which have led to social, political and economic problems in Europe and Russia,” he said. The BJP leader said in the coming days there would be greater tensions and conflicts for water than oil.

Chamba, March 29
The entire region of Chamba district had intermittent rain accompanied by thunderstorm and lightning today. The rain brought cheers amongst farmers of the area.

According to agriculture experts, rain is very beneficial for wheat crops and seasonal vegetables grown by farmers. On the other hand, fresh snowfall on mountain peaks in the district had again generated the cold waves thereby plummeting the temperature considerably in the low-lying areas of the district 

Shimla, March 29
Increasing awareness levels coupled with extension of testing and counselling facilities has helped bring down transmission of AIDS and HIV in the hill state from 1.69 per cent to a mere 0.78 per cent.

Even though Himachal remains a low prevalence state, it is the high literacy rate coupled with aggressive awareness campaigns which has helped bring down the level of transmission not just in adults but also in new born. Another important aspect is that out of a total of 33,954 pregnant women, who were tested for HIV, only 22 were found to be carrying the infection.

The positivity in Parent to Child Transmission as such has also declined from 0.12 in 2008 to 0.10 in 2009 and finally to 0.6 in 2010. The total number of AIDS cases in the state is 1,296 with a total of 285 new cases on 2008, 286 in 2009 and 390 in 2010 with bringing down the prevalence AIDS and HIV.

The efforts made by the HP State AIDS Control Society in creating awareness among people against AIDS and HIV have yielded positive results. There has also been a decline in HIV transmission from 1.69 per cent in 2008 to 0.98 percent in 2009 to 0.78 in 2010.

While the number of persons who underwent voluntary testing for HIV infection in 2010 was over one lakh, 805 were found to be carrying the infection. In 2009, a total of 793 persons tested HIV positive while in 2008 this number stood at 748. The number of Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC) in the state has gone up from 21 to 49 so that people have access to testing facility close to their home.

To provide free medicines to patients, three anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centres have been set up at Shimla, Tanda and Hamirpur. A total of 3,510 patients are registered in these centres and 1,279 are getting ART treatment. Eight link ART centres have been set up at Bilaspur, Chamba, Kullu, Mandi, Nahan, Solan, Una and Nalagarh for the convenience of infected persons.

For providing holistic care, three community care centres have been set in Kangra, Hamirpur and Shimla. Besides this, there are two Drop-in-Centres at Paonta Sahib and Barmana in Bilaspur. Red Ribbon Clubs have been set up in 234 colleges and technical institutions in the state. 

Manali, March 29
Keeping in view the upcoming tourist season in Kullu-Manali, the Manali Hoteliers Association has discussed various problems being faced by visitors and hoteliers in the town.

Members said there was a need to widen the existing balley bridge in the Left Bank area near Aleo. The bridge was constructed after a landslide in the area in 1995.

They also said it was the need of the hour to have more parking places in Manali. The scarcity of water was another problem which they were facing.

President of the Manali Hoteliers Association Gajender Thakur said he had made a request to the Civil Aviation Ministry , requesting it to have connecting flights to Kullu via Delhi across all major cities in India so that it could become convenient for tourists to visit the valley. — OC

Paonta Sahib, March 29
The police has arrested three more youths in the Paonta violence incident, in which three youths were killed and two injured. Those arrested include Gurpreet Singh, alias Kakker, Rohit, alias Sagar, and Ajay Kumar. With this, the number of those arrested has gone up to seven.

Additional SP Sanjeev Lakhanpal said apart from one all accused had been arrested. One of the arrested youth, Rohit, alias Sagar, was seriously injured in the attack and he is recuperating at a hospital in Dehradun from where he was arrested by the police. — OC

Dharamsala, March 29
A five-member Constitutional Amendment Drafting Committee representing the Tibetan government-in-exile and the parliament-in-exile was formed yesterday as per a resolution passed unanimously on the last day of the 14th Tibetan parliament's session.

The committee will comprise speaker Penpa Tsering, Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche (prime minister), deputy speaker Dolma Gyari, education kalon (Education Minister) Thupten Lungrik and former speaker Pema Jungney.

The Tibetan parliament had a consensus after debates over several days to amend the charter of Tibetans-in-exile paving way for devolution of the Dalai Lama’s political and administrative powers to the Tibetan government. The committee will have to submit its report before April 11 as per the resolution adopted by the Tibetan parliament.

Kangra, March 29
A four-day 17th state polytechnic sports meet was today inaugurated by RSGupta, Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, by unfurling the sports flag. Around 314 boys and girls from nine polytechnic colleges from all over the state are participating in the event. 

In 1,500 metre race (men) Sanjeev of the host Polytechnic Kangra bagged the first position where as Vishal of Polytechnic Sundernagar and Neeraj of Hamirpur Polytechnic bagged the second and third position, respectively on the opening day.

In shotput (girls) event Sonika of Polytechnic Ambota got first position where as Monika of Polytechnic for women Kandaghat and Preeti of Hamirpur Polytechnic bagged the second and third position, respectively. In shotput (boys) event Mohit of Polytechnic Hamirpur got first position where as Ravinder of Polytechnic Ambota and Lal Singh of Polytechnic Banikhet bagged the second and third position, respectively. — OC