Mandi/Kullu, April 18
A long spell of hail today destroyed more than 70 per cent of apple fruit set in the lower areas and bloom in the higher altitude in Gohar and Karog areas, the major apple belts in Mandi district and the Lug and Kullu valley in Kullu district, dashing farmers' hopes for an average crop to the ground. The hail also hit peas and vegetable crops in the region, sending shocks among farmers.

According to farmers and horticultural field officials, the most-affected areas included Rohadna, Choki, Chatri, Jnajheli, Bakshiad, Kutachi, Badu, Saroha, Gohar and Pangna Churag and other parts of Karsog where the hail continued to wreak havoc for 20 minutes, turning orchards almost snow white with leaves and fruits reduced to smithereens.

The hail and heavy rain have damaged more than the 70 per cent of the apple fruit set in the Churag and Lug valley. The blooms are damaged in the upper Kullu valley, said president Upper Kullu Valley Apple Growers Association.

Farmers said blooms in the apple belt of Shimla, Mandi and Kullu had been scanty and rain and hail had hit the apple crop. Pollination remained week due to low temperatures and rain, said Balbir Chajta, an orchardist from Jubbal in Shimla.

HDOs told The Tribune from Gohar that damage due to the hail was high and they were assessing the loss.

Deputy Director, Horticulture, Joginderpal said they had asked the HDOs to assess the loss and send the reports. The weather had been unfavourable during the blooms and had hit the crop this time, he added.

Horticulture experts here said the prolonged cold weather this year had affected the flowering process of apples and now the snow on and hail in the lower region had damaged about 30 per cent of fruit crop in this district.

Shimla, April 18
With an all-time high growth of 34 per cent in tax revenue during 2010-11, the hill state has finally come out of the shadow of global economic slowdown.

The total tax collections, including VAT and excise duty, during the year amounted to Rs 3,045 crore, up from last year’s Rs 2,274 crore. The normal average growth has been around 22 per cent and the previous highest growth was 26 per cent after VAT was introduced in 2005. The entry tax has also brought an additional revenue of about Rs 80 crore. The revenue from the sale of liquor increased to Rs 580 crore against the target of Rs 550 crore.

The tax growth declined sharply when the global economic meltdown made an impact on the state too and as a result the tax collections grew only by a meagre 14 per cent 2008-09.

The economic recovery started last year and the tax collections recorded a growth of 20 per cent. However, the target of Rs 2,327 crore set by the government could not be achieved and the total tax collections came to Rs 2,274 crore.

The economic scenario had changed in the last fiscal and the state had surpassed even the revised target of tax collection by Rs 91 crore. The government has increased the target for the current financial year from Rs 2,954 crore to Rs 3,500 crore. The target for revenue from sale of liquor has been increased to Rs 710 crore.

The tax collections are bound to improve further with the rollout of some more IT-enabled applications from next month under the e-tax administration programme. The applications will facilitate e-filing of returns and declaration at the inter-state tax barriers regarding goods being imported.

The switchover to e-tax administration will enable the Excise and Taxation Department to detect evasion and ensure better tax compliance. It will immensely reduce the work of officers who will be in position to access all data and information about dealers with a click of the mouse. The increased collections will help increase the tax to the gross state domestic product ratio which is one of the lowest in the country at 6.40 per cent in the country.

Dharamsala, April 18
Despite the fact that his detractors are writing him off, Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Industry Virbhadra Singh has made it clear that he was not out of the race for the post of Chief Minister in the state.

Responding to queries from newsmen here today, Virbhadra Singh said, “I am ready to contest Assembly elections in the state. If the party high command wants my service, I am ready to discharge my duty. I have 25 years of experience as Chief Minister and in case the party high command allows, I can start a massive campaign against the BJP government in the state”.

Despite being cold shouldered in the elections to the state organisation, Virbhadra has been keeping a keen interest in state politics, much to the chagrin of his detractors.

Virbhadra also demanded that the state government should cancel the lease of 200-kanal land given to the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) in Dharamsala. The state government was not allotting land for the Central University in Dharamsala. However, it had ample land available for the HPCA hotel.

The HPCA justifies the land deal on the plea that ICC norms require a five-star hotel for the organisation of international cricket matches at Dharamsala.

Citing the CAG report, Virbhadra said the financial condition of the state was worsening during the rule of the present BJP government. He said as per the CAG report, the budget was surplus during the Congress regime, but it went into deficit during the financial years of 2008-09 and 2009-10.

BJP takes a dig at Congress

Shimla, April 18
The fund-starved Himachal Government will be able to raise around Rs 250 crore more by way of loans due to switch over to the new series with 2004-05 as the base year in place of 1999-2000 from January, 2010, for the estimation of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

The Planning Commission had capped the borrowings at Rs 1,647 crore in accordance with the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission which laid down that loans should not exceed 3 per cent of the GSDP. The new base year and the changes made in the new series had substantially raised the growth rate in several sectors as compared to the old series. Accordingly, the new GSDP works out much higher.

The issue has already been discussed with the Planning Commission and it has given positive indications in this regard. While the enhanced borrowing limit will be finalised at an official-level meeting to be held in Delhi shortly, the state is hopeful that it will be raised to at least Rs 1,900 crore. The state has been falling short of resources to fund the 11th Five-Year Plan and the availability of additional funds will help improve performance.

The state has no option but to compress expenditure as the 13th Finance Commission has linked the release of state-specific grants and certain benefits recommended by it for reduction in revenue deficit and debt burden.

As per the new targets set under the State Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, the fiscal deficit is to be reduced to 3 per cent or less of the GSDP by 2011-12 and maintained at that level thereafter.

The outstanding debt is to be brought down to 47 per cent of the GSDP in 2011-12, 44.4 per cent in 2012-13, 42.1 per cent in 2013-14 and 40.1 per cent by 2014-15. The state will have to set up an independent mechanism to review and monitor the fiscal reforms path in accordance with the FRBM Act.

Hamirpur, April 18
The Superintendent of Police (SP), Hamirpur, has written a letter to the Director of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) here to rein in “rowdy students”, creating hooliganism in a drunken state for quite some time.

The SP wrote the letter after an incident of hooliganism was reported recently after which the police had booked six students of NIT.

Six students of the institute were found creating a nuisance near Kalanjhadi village, where many students reportedly go to consume liquor quite frequently.

The police was forced to take this action as there had been reports of acts of hooliganism by NIT students in Hamirpur and nearby places during late hours.

There had been reports of such acts in the past when NIT students were found creating hooliganism in a few bars and on the roads leading to NIT. Some bars and restaurants in the town have become their regular haunts.

Since NIT hostels have no boundary walls many students venture out for drinks and return late in the night in a drunken state.

A group of students had clashed with a local taxi driver over the payment of fare to the NIT campus some time back after which a brawl had occurred.

Hamirpur SP Kuldeep Sharma said, “The police had booked six students under the Police Act after they were caught indulging in hooliganism near Kalanjhadi village. I have also written a letter to the NIT Director to rein in the students and initiate disciplinary action against them”.

NIT Director Dr RL Sharma said, “We have come to know about the incident and we will definitely take action in this matter”.

Dharamsala, April 18
ETT teachers blocked traffic on the mini secretariat crossing here this afternoon for about an hour.

The ETT teachers, who have done their course from Jammu and Kashmir, have been sitting on a dharna in front of the mini secretariat for more than a month now.

They alleged that the government was not considering them for jobs in government schools despite a number of vacancies were lying in elementary schools.

Teachers sat on a dharna at the mini secretariat crossing at about 1 pm and raised slogans against the state government. They also gave a 10-day ultimatum to the state government to consider their demand or they would intensify their agitation.

Earlier, they also got support from Congress leaders and BJP MP from Kangra Rajan Sushant.

The state government, however, seems to be in no mood to the yield to the demand of the agitating ETT teachers.

Principal Secretary, Education, Shrikant Baldi, justified the denial of jobs to teachers. He said in Himachal, the ETT candidates were selected on merit, whereas in many other states no such criterion was adopted in selection. So the authorities preferred the candidates who had done the ETT course from Himachal, he said.

When asked if a number of posts were lying vacant in primary schools in the state, Baldi said the vacancies could be filled by ETT teachers of the state.

Shimla, April 18
Under fire for allowing “sub-standard” private universities, the state government has finally decided to carry out a thorough inspection of all the 10 institutions to ascertain whether or not they have requisite infrastructure, faculty and other facilities as laid down by various regulatory bodies to run various courses.

There are 11 private universities in the state. However, the Jaypee University of Information and Technology, which was set up in 2002, will not be inspected as it was set up under a different Act.

In all five teams have been constituted, each of which has been assigned two private universities for inspection. Each team comprises five members, two senior professors from government institutions like the National Institute of Technology (Hamirpur), Himachal Pradesh University and Indira Gandhi Medical College, two principals of colleges and a financial expert.

The universities will be required to furnish information for the 2010-11 academic session about the intake of students in various courses, qualified faculty, bank account numbers in which salary of the staff is deposited and other details like whether or not all employees are enrolled under the Provident Fund Scheme. Besides ascertaining adequacy of physical infrastructure like the number of classrooms, laboratories, books in the library and journals subscribed, the committee will also find out if 25 per cent reservation has been provided to Himachali students and posts of Class III and Class IV staff filled from amongst bona fide Himachalis.

The inspection will be completed by the first week of May and approval for admitting students in various ongoing courses will be granted only to the institutions which fulfil the requirements of minimum infrastructure, faculty and other conditions like reservation in various courses and employment to Himachalis.

While the move to enforce minimum prescribed norms will help maintain some sort of academic standards, a lot more is needed to be done to establish the credentials of private universities, a majority of whom are not finding enough students to justify their existence. The government has so far not taken any initiative for holding a common entrance test for admission which is most important to ensure the rule of merit.

As private universities are purely business ventures, financial viability is most important. With so many universities in a small state, financial viability is becoming a major concern as most of them are not finding enough students. It is time to provide for “dissolution” of unviable universities and affiliating courses being run by them to the state university so that the students do not suffer. The latest regulations framed by the UGC for deemed universities provide for closure of unviable institutions. Norms must be put in place for assessing viability and closure of unviable universities rather than allowing continuation of sub-standard institutions to play havoc with the future of students.